Does mysql SUPER privilege include ALL?

Question

I'm granting the following rights to a user:

grant super on . to 'user'@'host';

does this include the rights on dbname given by:

grant all on dbname.* to 'user'@'host';

thank you

Answer 1

Please be careful not to assign SUPER to just anyone. Once a DB Server reaches the max_connections limit, only one DB Connection is allowed to login and that user must have the SUPER privilege. Otherwise, a DBA cannot login to perform major operations mentioned by @DTest.

As to the question, here is mysql.db from MySQL 5.0.45

mysql> desc mysql.db;
+-----------------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field                 | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Host                  | char(60)      | NO   | PRI |         |       |
| Db                    | char(64)      | NO   | PRI |         |       |
| User                  | char(16)      | NO   | PRI |         |       |
| Select_priv           | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Insert_priv           | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Update_priv           | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Delete_priv           | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_priv           | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Drop_priv             | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Grant_priv            | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| References_priv       | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Index_priv            | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Alter_priv            | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_tmp_table_priv | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Lock_tables_priv      | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_view_priv      | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Show_view_priv        | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_routine_priv   | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Alter_routine_priv    | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Execute_priv          | enum('N','Y') | NO   |     | N       |       |
+-----------------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
20 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Here is mysql.user from MySQL 5.0.45

mysql> desc mysql.user;
+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field                 | Type                              | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Host                  | char(60)                          | NO   | PRI |         |       |
| User                  | char(16)                          | NO   | PRI |         |       |
| Password              | char(41)                          | NO   |     |         |       |
| Select_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Insert_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Update_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Delete_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Drop_priv             | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Reload_priv           | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Shutdown_priv         | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Process_priv          | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| File_priv             | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Grant_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| References_priv       | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Index_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Alter_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Show_db_priv          | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Super_priv            | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_tmp_table_priv | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Lock_tables_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Execute_priv          | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Repl_slave_priv       | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Repl_client_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_view_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Show_view_priv        | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_routine_priv   | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Alter_routine_priv    | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| Create_user_priv      | enum('N','Y')                     | NO   |     | N       |       |
| ssl_type              | enum('','ANY','X509','SPECIFIED') | NO   |     |         |       |
| ssl_cipher            | blob                              | NO   |     |         |       |
| x509_issuer           | blob                              | NO   |     |         |       |
| x509_subject          | blob                              | NO   |     |         |       |
| max_questions         | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       |
| max_updates           | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       |
| max_connections       | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       |
| max_user_connections  | int(11) unsigned                  | NO   |     | 0       |       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
37 rows in set (0.00 sec)

As shown, SUPER is not a DB specific privilege. It is a DBA privilege.

Answer 2

No, it is basically a privilege that allows an account to modify how the database operates, but it's separate from INSERT, ALTER, etc.

From the documentation:

The SUPER privilege enables an account to use CHANGE MASTER TO, KILL or mysqladmin kill to kill threads belonging to other accounts (you can always kill your own threads), PURGE BINARY LOGS, configuration changes using SET GLOBAL to modify global system variables, the mysqladmin debug command, enabling or disabling logging, performing updates even if the read_only system variable is enabled, starting and stopping replication on slave servers, specification of any account in the DEFINER attribute of stored programs and views, and enables you to connect (once) even if the connection limit controlled by the max_connections system variable is reached.

To create or alter stored functions if binary logging is enabled, you may also need the SUPER privilege, as described in Section 17.7, “Binary Logging of Stored Programs”.