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  1. MariaDB Connector/J
  2. CONJ-1321

Enable TLS by default in Connector/J

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Details

    • New Feature
    • Status: Open (View Workflow)
    • Major
    • Resolution: Unresolved
    • None
    • 3.6
    • None
    • None

    Description

      Default sslMode to verify-full in 3.6, instead of plaintext. Connector/C 3.4 already made this change.

      Why now

      Until now, secure-by-default was impractical because of the setup work: CA
      management, keys, trust stores. Zero-configuration TLS in Server 11.4+ removes
      all of that. The server generates its own certificate, and the client verifies
      it via fingerprint + the account password as a shared secret, no CA needed.
      Connector/J 3.4+ already supports this, so against an 11.4+ server it just works.
      The feature has been out since 11.4 LTS (2024) and is now in two LTS lines, so
      it is mature enough to rely on by default.

      Performance

      TLS is not free: there is a handshake cost on connect and some per-query
      overhead from encryption. For most workloads this is small, especially with
      connection pooling where the handshake is amortized. We consider the security
      gain to clearly outweigh it, an unencrypted default is no longer acceptable
      when the server is already secure by default. Users who truly need raw speed can
      still opt out with sslMode=disabled.

      Compatibility

      This breaks connections that can't use zero-conf validation:

      • MySQL, Percona, MariaDB < 11.4 (no zero-conf),
      • empty-password accounts (the password is the shared secret),
      • PAM / gssapi auth

      but this is easy opt-out via setting sslMode=disabled explicitly

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            diego dupin Diego Dupin
            diego dupin Diego Dupin
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            Dates

              Created:
              Updated:

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