diff --git a/bitnami/phpbb/3/docker-compose.yml b/bitnami/phpbb/3/docker-compose.yml
index b0f841689ca7..5ab36107f039 100644
--- a/bitnami/phpbb/3/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/bitnami/phpbb/3/docker-compose.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ version: '2'
 services:
   mariadb:
     image: 'bitnami/mariadb:latest'
+    environment:
+      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
     volumes:
       - 'mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb'
   phpbb:
diff --git a/bitnami/phpbb/README.md b/bitnami/phpbb/README.md
index 0a6e838828a0..29b7573ca292 100644
--- a/bitnami/phpbb/README.md
+++ b/bitnami/phpbb/README.md
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ version: '2'
 services:
   mariadb:
     image: 'bitnami/mariadb:latest'
+    environment:
+      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
     volumes:
       - 'mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb'
   phpbb:
@@ -71,7 +73,7 @@ If you want to run the application manually instead of using docker-compose, the
 2. Start a MariaDB database in the network generated:
 
   ```bash
-  $ docker run -d --name mariadb --net=phpbb_network bitnami/mariadb
+  $ docker run -d --name mariadb -e ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes --net=phpbb_network bitnami/mariadb
   ```
 
   *Note:* You need to give the container a name in order to phpBB to resolve the host
@@ -103,6 +105,8 @@ version: '2'
 services:
   mariadb:
     image: 'bitnami/mariadb:latest'
+    environment:
+      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
     volumes:
       - '/path/to/your/local/mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb'
   phpbb:
@@ -131,7 +135,7 @@ In this case you need to specify the directories to mount on the run command. Th
 2. Create a MariaDB container with host volume:
 
   ```bash
-  $ docker run -d --name mariadb \
+  $ docker run -d --name mariadb -e ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
     --net phpbb-tier \
     --volume /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami/mariadb \
     bitnami/mariadb:latest
diff --git a/bitnami/phpbb/docker-compose.yml b/bitnami/phpbb/docker-compose.yml
index 2098f51baa09..6d2a7e4edba3 100644
--- a/bitnami/phpbb/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/bitnami/phpbb/docker-compose.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ version: '2'
 services:
   mariadb:
     image: 'bitnami/mariadb:latest'
+    environment:
+      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
     volumes:
       - 'mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb'
   phpbb: