Manage users

Question

Hi,
I've Flex as front-ent, with Java over MySQL DB as back-end (DB access through hibernate).
I'm trying to figure out what is the best-practice to:
1. Manage users records?
I currently have my own users table (with user name, password and all the info I need). Should I use MuSQL.user table?
I've to came to his point because I wanted to hold my user's password encrypted, and following the following link I understood that passwords in my own users table are not protected for different reasons - logs, backup scripts, etc. (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-security-excerpt/5.1/en/password-security-admin.html)
2. Do I need to log-in the DB using the user's crednetials? if yes, why?
Currently I only check for the un/pwd validity, but for all users - I connect using a single root UN...
Thanks, Haim

Answer 1

Hi Haim
I think you are mixing things together.
The MySQL.user table, are for the DBMS to handle users of the database, not of a custom application, so unless you are trying to create a DBMS manager, you shouldn't access any of MySQL's own tables.
If you wanna store you passwords in the database encrypted, you simply encrypt them in your code, and then they will also be encrypted in the DBMS logs and in the DB.
But as the docs state, you show NEVER allow access to the DB logs, to other then an administrator and the DBMS itself.
Best Regards
Martin Andersen