6.4.1.2 Old Native Pluggable Authentication

MySQL includes two plugins that implement native authentication; that is, authentication based on the password hashing methods in use from before the introduction of pluggable authentication. This section describes mysql_old_password, which implements authentication against the mysql.user system table using the older (pre-4.1) native password hashing method. For information about mysql_native_password, which implements authentication using the native password hashing method, see Section 6.4.1.1, “Native Pluggable Authentication”. For information about these password hashing methods, see Section 6.1.2.4, “Password Hashing in MySQL”.

Note

Passwords that use the pre-4.1 hashing method are less secure than passwords that use the native password hashing method and should be avoided. Pre-4.1 passwords are deprecated and support for them (including the mysql_old_password plugin) was removed in MySQL 5.7.5. For account upgrade instructions, see Section 6.4.1.3, “Migrating Away from Pre-4.1 Password Hashing and the mysql_old_password Plugin”.

The following table shows the plugin names on the server and client sides.

Table 6.9 Plugin and Library Names for Old Native Password Authentication

Plugin or File	Plugin or File Name
Server-side plugin	mysql_old_password
Client-side plugin	mysql_old_password
Library file	None (plugins are built in)

The following sections provide installation and usage information specific to old native pluggable authentication:

• Installing Old Native Pluggable Authentication

• Using Old Native Pluggable Authentication

For general information about pluggable authentication in MySQL, see Section 6.2.13, “Pluggable Authentication”.

Installing Old Native Pluggable Authentication

The mysql_old_password plugin exists in server and client forms:

• The server-side plugin is built into the server, need not be loaded explicitly, and cannot be disabled by unloading it.

• The client-side plugin is built into the libmysqlclient client library and is available to any program linked against libmysqlclient.

Using Old Native Pluggable Authentication

MySQL client programs can use the --default-auth option to specify the mysql_old_password plugin as a hint about which client-side plugin the program can expect to use:

$> mysql --default-auth=mysql_old_password ...