EC
1716
MySQLERRORNotableAccess ControlHIGH confidence

Cannot set password expiration for anonymous user

Production Risk

Low — operation fails; no user changes occur.

What this means

Password expiration options cannot be applied to anonymous (nameless) MySQL accounts.

Why it happens
  1. 1Executing ALTER USER ''@'localhost' PASSWORD EXPIRE INTERVAL 90 DAY.
How to reproduce
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
ALTER USER ''@'localhost' PASSWORD EXPIRE INTERVAL 90 DAY;

expected output

ERROR 1716 (HY000): Cannot set password expiration for the anonymous user.

Fix

Remove anonymous accounts instead

Remove anonymous accounts instead
DROP USER ''@'localhost';
DROP USER ''@'%';

Why this works

Removing anonymous accounts is a security best practice and avoids this limitation.

What not to do

✕

Sources
Official documentation ↗

MySQL 8.0 — 1716 ER_PASSWORD_EXPIRE_ANONYMOUS_USER

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