SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user...after a restore; How to update the password in local.xml?

Question

Magento 1.9.1
Porto theme

We were hacked, files deleted:

I asked the company to do a restore from the most recent full Cpanel backup but they said it was missing files.

I uploaded 5 other full Cpanel updates but they still weren't able to do the restore and make the site running.

It currently gives the following Error:

There has been an error processing your request
SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'ourSITE_ourSITE'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

Trace:
#0 /home/ourSITE/public_html/lib/Zend/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php(111): Zend_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Abstract->_connect()
#1 /home/ourSITE/public_html/lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php(320): Zend_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql->_connect()
#2 /home/ourSITE/public_html/lib/Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php(460): Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql->_connect()
#3 /home/ourSITE/public_html/lib/Zend/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Abstract.php(238): Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query('SET NAMES utf8', Array)
#4 /home/ourSITE/public_html/lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php(428): Zend_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Abstract->query('SET NAMES utf8', Array)
#5 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Resource.php(179): Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql->query('SET NAMES utf8')
#6 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Resource.php(110): Mage_Core_Model_Resource->_newConnection('pdo_mysql', Object(Mage_Core_Model_Config_Element))
#7 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/code/local/Amasty/Fpc/Model/Fpc/Front.php(984): Mage_Core_Model_Resource->getConnection('core_read')
#8 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/code/local/Amasty/Fpc/Model/Fpc/Front.php(107): Amasty_Fpc_Model_Fpc_Front->getDbConfig('web/url/use_sto...')
#9 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Cache.php(703): Amasty_Fpc_Model_Fpc_Front->__construct()
#10 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Cache.php(685): Mage_Core_Model_Cache->_getProcessor('Amasty_Fpc_Mode...')
#11 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/App.php(340): Mage_Core_Model_Cache->processRequest()
#12 /home/ourSITE/public_html/app/Mage.php(684): Mage_Core_Model_App->run(Array)
#13 /home/ourSITE/public_html/index.php(87): Mage::run('', 'store')
#14 {main}

Error log record number: 395790507641

I found this:

SQLSTATE[28000] [1045] Access denied for user 'balmain'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

When I locate the password in that file - it seems encoded? It shows something like: 34PV-(RF1h] Is that encoded? How can I put my password in there? Or what else can I try to make the site work?

Answer 1

The password in app/etc/local.xml is just plain text, not encoded. You can edit that file directly to provide a password.

My guess is that if the site had to be restored, that maybe an older version of your local.xml was restored with old credentials?

Change/Reset MySQL User Password

You'll probably want to go into Cpanel and locate the MySQL user and database being used for your store. Then maybe just reset the password and update your local.xml with the new user/creds. Also, due to the fact that you posted the password in your question, you definitely want to reset it.

Cpanel - Change MySQL User Password

or

You can ignore the parts of this video that have you create a database, but if you are required to know the original password to change it and you don't remember it, you could just create a new mysql user and assign it to the database being used. Be sure to give the mysql user full permissions on the database.

Cpanel - MySQL User Management

Clear Cache

After making any changes to app/etc/local.xml you need to make sure you clear the cache for the site as the original credentials will be cached.

You can manually clear the cache with the following command via ssh (be very careful with the rm -rf command as it's destructive if you accidentally specify the wrong path to delete files):

cd /home/ourSITE/public_html
rm -rf var/cache/*