MySQL - Locking and Unlocking users

Introduction

Occasionally, you will want to lock a MySQL user from utilizing the MySQL databases it is assigned to, or unlock them to give them access again.

Procedure

The MySQL user information is a part of the system-level MySQL database, and can only be modified by root.  To login to MySQL as root, do the following:

# mysql

The following command will lock a user that already exists:

ALTER USER 'db_user'@'localhost' ACCOUNT LOCK;

To unlock a user use the following:

ALTER USER 'db_user'@'localhost' ACCOUNT UNLOCK;