Authentication Plugins

When a user attempts to log in, the authentication plugin controls how MariaDB Server determines whether the connection is from a legitimate user.

When creating or altering a user account with the GRANT, CREATE USER or ALTER USER statements, you can specify the authentication plugin you want the user account to use by providing the IDENTIFIED VIA clause. By default, when you create a user account without specifying an authentication plugin, MariaDB uses the mysql_native_password plugin.

MariaDB starting with 10.4

In MariaDB 10.4 and later, there are some notable changes, such as:

  • You can specify multiple authentication plugins for each user account.
  • The root@localhost user created by mysql_install_db is created with the ability to use two authentication plugins. First, it is configured to try to use the unix_socket authentication plugin. This allows the the root@localhost user to login without a password via the local Unix socket file defined by the socket system variable, as long as the login is attempted from a process owned by the operating system root user account. Second, if authentication fails with the unix_socket authentication plugin, then it is configured to try to use the mysql_native_password authentication plugin. However, an invalid password is initially set, so in order to authenticate this way, a password must be set with SET PASSWORD.
Title Description
Pluggable Authentication Overview The authentication of users is delegated to plugins.
Authentication Plugin - mysql_native_password Uses the password hashing algorithm introduced in MySQL 4.1.
Authentication Plugin - mysql_old_password The mysql_old_password authentication plugin uses the pre-MySQL 4.1 password hashing algorithm.
Authentication Plugin - ed25519 Uses the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm to securely store users' passwords.
Authentication Plugin - GSSAPI The gssapi authentication plugin uses the GSSAPI interface to authenticate with Kerberos or NTLM.
Authentication with Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) Uses the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) framework to authenticate MariaDB users.
Authentication Plugin - Unix Socket Uses the user name that owns the process connected to MariaDB's unix socket file.
Authentication Plugin - Named Pipe Uses the user name that owns the process connected to MariaDB's named pipe on Windows.
Authentication Plugin - SHA-256 MySQL supports the sha256_password and caching_sha2_password authentication plugins.
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https://mariadb.com/kb/en/authentication-plugins/