diff --git a/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml b/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml
index d49118b0f8..1eaee5b7d8 100644
--- a/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml
+++ b/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBPORT" value="3306" />
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBNAME" value="phpbb_tests" />
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBUSER" value="root" />
-		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBPASSWD" value="rootpasswd" />
+		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBPASSWD" value="" />
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_TABLE_PREFIX" value="phpbb_"/>
 		<server name="PHPBB_FUNCTIONAL_URL" value="http://localhost/" />
 	</php>
diff --git a/travis/setup-mariadb.sh b/travis/setup-mariadb.sh
index 68359e400a..2e974da8eb 100755
--- a/travis/setup-mariadb.sh
+++ b/travis/setup-mariadb.sh
@@ -24,3 +24,10 @@ sudo apt-get update -qq
 sudo debconf-set-selections <<< "mariadb-server-$VERSION mysql-server/root_password password rootpasswd"
 sudo debconf-set-selections <<< "mariadb-server-$VERSION mysql-server/root_password_again password rootpasswd"
 sudo apt-get install -qq mariadb-server
+
+# Set root password to empty string.
+echo "
+USE mysql;
+UPDATE user SET Password = PASSWORD('') where User = 'root';
+FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
+" | mysql -u root -prootpasswd