WordPress - Getting credentials from configuration files

When we have access to the files of the host machine, we can search for credentials for MySQL in the configuration files of WordPress

• Go to /var/www/html (default folder for server) and list elements

cd /var/www/html
ls -a
#Example output
.htaccess  index.php  wp-admin  wp-config-docker.php  wp-config.php  wp-content
wp-cron.php  wp-includes  wp-load.php  wp-login.php  wp-settings.php  xmlrpc.php

---

• See content of wp-config.php and search for credentials

cat wp-config.php

#Example output
...
/** Database hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', getenv_docker('WORDPRESS_DB_HOST', 'mysql') );

/** Database charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', getenv_docker('WORDPRESS_DB_CHARSET', 'utf8') );

/** The database collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', getenv_docker('WORDPRESS_DB_COLLATE', '') );
...

getenv_docker() Is telling us that the credentials are environment variables on the container

---

• Check environment variables to obtain the credentials to the database

env

#Example output
...
WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=wordpress
...
WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=db
...
WORDPRESS_DB_USER=wordpress
...

---

• Access the database with MySQL and the credentials we have got

mysql -u $user -h $host -p   #u for the user, h for the host, and p to ask for the password