Joomla! 1.5 create new admin user via MySQL and phpMyAdmin

If you need to gain administrator access to a Joomla! 1.5 website where the admin password is not known (forgotten or the original admin is no longer available) you can resolve the situation by adding a new administrator user through MySQL.

For this, obviously, you need to now the database credentials. This is how you do it using MySQL and phpMyAdmin. Click on the images below to see them enlarged.

1. Log in to phpMyAdmin using the credentials for the Joomla! database
2. Go to the table jos_users and go to the last record. If your last user id is less than 1000 you can use the values in this example. Otherwise you have to adapt it to a user id larger than your last user id (if you have less than 1000 users in your Joomla! database user id 1000 will be fine).
3. Insert a new record into the jos_users table:
   

   Joomla! 1.5 create new admin user via MySQL and phpMyAdmin step 1

   id = 1000
   name = A new administrator
   username = admin2
   email = admin2@example.com (or perhaps your own email address ;))
   password = d2064d358136996bd22421584a7cb33e:trd7TvKHx6dMeoMmBVxYmg0vuXEA4199
   usertype = Super Administrator
   block = 0
   sendEmail = 1
   gid = 25

   Then click on Run to save the entry

4. Go to the table jos_core_acl_aro and insert a new record:
   

   Joomla! 1.5 create new admin user via MySQL and phpMyAdmin step 2

   id = 1000
   section_value = users
   value = 1000
   order_value = 0
   name = Administrator
   hidden = 0

   Then click on Run to save the entry

5. Go to the table jos_core_acl_groups_aro_map and insert a new record:
   

   Joomla! 1.5 create new admin user via MySQL and phpMyAdmin step 3

   group_id = 25
   section_value = (empty)
   aro_id = 1000

   Then click on Run to save the entry

6. Now go to the backend of your site (i.e /administrator) and log in with the username “admin2” and the password “secret” (whithout “”)
7. Go to the user section and immediately change the password of admin2 user since “secret” is a very insecure password