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WordPress, the most popular CMS, runs on MySQL, the most popular database out there. Spending some time to ensure your MySQL installation and WordPress database configuration installation is adequately hardened against common attack vectors can help you reduce risks. This is especially true if you are managing your MySQL server yourself.
It is worth noting that many WordPress installations use MariaDB, which is a fork of MySQL. As both work very similarly, we will use MySQL to mean both MySQL and MariaDB. Regardless of which RDMS flavor you’re running, hardening your MySQL can help you minimize the risks of attacks from hackers. However, this does not replace other security measures, such as installing a web application firewall, ensuring you have the latest version of plugins, themes, and WordPress, and hardening WordPress.
Heads up, this article is targeted at MySQL 8.0 running on Linux (Ubuntu). While the concepts will translate to other operating systems and MySQL/MariaDB versions, the commands and file paths used in these examples may differ. Before making any changes to a production system, it is highly advised to test any changes in a staging or pre-production environment.