How to setup and secure PHPMyAdmin on OpenLiteSpeed Server

I will walk you through installing and setting up PhpMyAdmin tool on the OpenLiteSpeed server. This is a must have tool that will help you in managing databases that run your website. In addition to setting it up, I will also walk you through securing the phpMyAdmin so that it isn’t accessible to the open public

Steps

1. Open an SSH Terminal console to your server. If you don’t have an OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) server yet, follow this tutorial)
2. Elevate to super user

sudo su

3. Install unzip package if not already installed

apt install unzip

4. CD to the default virtual host document root

cd /usr/local/lsws/Example/html

5. Get the latest version of PhpMyAdmin and set it up

wget https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads/phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.zip
unzip phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.zip
mv phpMyAdmin-5.1.2-all-languages phpmyadmin
chown -R lsadm:lsadm phpmyadmin

6. Create PHPMyAdmin config and add a secure secret string for the blowfish encryption

mv phpmyadmin/config.sample.inc.php phpmyadmin/config.inc.php
vi phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

7. Generate a random string using an online generator with the length of 32 characters
8. Add the string in the file at this line between the single quotes:

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ''; 

9. Create the phpmyadmin context in the OLS Web Admin
   1. Navigate to WebAdmin -> Virtual Hosts -> Example -> Context
   2. Click +
   3. For Type select Static
   4. Enter URI value /phpmyadmin
   5. Enter Location: /usr/local/lsws/Example/html/phpmyadmin
   6. Set Accessible to YES
   7. Set default document to index.php
   8. Save and Restart LiteSpeed
10. Open port 8088 in Lightsail Firewall section
11. Test setup by visiting http://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS:8088/phpmyadmin
12. Secure PHPMyAdmin with one of the following options
    1. Restrict access by IP
    2. Setup Basic http authentication using local DB file
13. Restrict access by IP using Lightsail Firewall
    1. Navigate to Networking -> Firewall
    2. Check the box Restrict to IP address
    3. Enter your IP address to only allow your computers to connect to port 8088
14. Restrict access by using Web Admin IP Address
    1. Navigate to WebAdmin -> Virtual Host > Example > Context > phpmyadmin
    2. Set Access Allowed to your computers IP Address
    3. Set Access Denied to *
    4. Save and Restart LiteSpeed
15. Setup Basic http authentication using the following steps
16. In your SSH Terminal create the following file and set permissions

touch /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS
chown lsadm:lsadm /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS

17. Navigate to WebAdmin -> Virtual Hosts -> Example -> Security
18. Add Realm List
    1. Set name to phpmyadmin
    2. Set User DB Location to /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS
19. Save and Restart
20. Go back to WebAdmin -> Virtual Hosts -> Example -> Security
21. Click hyperlink for /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS
22. Create username and password
23. Save and Restart
24. Navigate to WebAdmin > Virtual Hosts > Example -> Context > phpmyadmin
25. Set Realmn to phpmyadmin
26. Test setup

Reference Links

https://docs.litespeedtech.com/cloud/images/wordpress/#how-do-i-secure-phpmyadmin

https://openlitespeed.org/kb/phpmyadmin-on-openlitespeed/