It is most likely appearing to work without a password because it is using socket authentication (vs tcp). See: http://mysqlserverteam.com/secure-by-default-in

It is most likely appearing to work without a password because it is using socket authentication (vs tcp). See: http://mysqlserverteam.com/secure-by-default-in-mysql-5-7/ http://mysqlserverteam.com/secure-by-default-in-mysql-5-7/ If you want to double check, try 'mysql --protocol=tcp'.