Encrypting client connections to MariaDB DB instances with SSL/TLS - Amazon Relational Database Service
SSL/TLS supportRequiring SSL/TLS for all connections to a MariaDB DB instanceConnecting from the MySQL command-line client with SSL/TLS (encrypted)
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Encrypting client connections to MariaDB DB instances with SSL/TLS

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is an industry-standard protocol for securing network connections between client and server. After SSL version 3.0, the name was changed to Transport Layer Security (TLS). Amazon RDS supports SSL/TLS encryption for MariaDB DB instances. Using SSL/TLS, you can encrypt a connection between your application client and your MariaDB DB instance. SSL/TLS support is available in all Amazon Web Services Regions.

Using SSL/TLS with a MariaDB DB instance

Amazon RDS creates an SSL/TLS certificate and installs the certificate on the DB instance when Amazon RDS provisions the instance. These certificates are signed by a certificate authority. The SSL/TLS certificate includes the DB instance endpoint as the Common Name (CN) for the SSL/TLS certificate to guard against spoofing attacks.

For information about downloading certificates, see Using SSL/TLS to encrypt a connection to a DB instance. For more information about using SSL/TLS with MySQL, see Updating applications to connect to MariaDB instances using new SSL/TLS certificates.

Amazon RDS for MariaDB supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 for all MariaDB versions.

You can require SSL/TLS connections for specific users accounts. For example, you can use one of the following statements, depending on your MariaDB version, to require SSL/TLS connections on the user account encrypted_user.

Use the following statement.


ALTER USER 'encrypted_user'@'%' REQUIRE SSL;

For more information on SSL/TLS connections with MariaDB, see Securing Connections for Client and Server in the MariaDB documentation.

Requiring SSL/TLS for all connections to a MariaDB DB instance

Use the require_secure_transport parameter to require that all user connections to your MariaDB DB instance use SSL/TLS. By default, the require_secure_transport parameter is set to OFF. You can set the require_secure_transport parameter to ON to require SSL/TLS for connections to your DB instance.

Note

The require_secure_transport parameter is only supported for MariaDB version 10.5 and higher.

You can set the require_secure_transport parameter value by updating the DB parameter group for your DB instance. You don't need to reboot your DB instance for the change to take effect.

When the require_secure_transport parameter is set to ON for a DB instance, a database client can connect to it if it can establish an encrypted connection. Otherwise, an error message similar to the following is returned to the client:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'USER'@'localhost' (using password: YES | NO)

For information about setting parameters, see Modifying parameters in a DB parameter group.

For more information about the require_secure_transport parameter, see the MariaDB documentation.

Connecting from the MySQL command-line client with SSL/TLS (encrypted)

The mysql client program parameters are slightly different if you are using the MySQL 5.7 version, the MySQL 8.0 version, or the MariaDB version.

To find out which version you have, run the mysql command with the --version option. In the following example, the output shows that the client program is from MariaDB.

$ mysql --version
mysql  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.5.15-MariaDB, for osx10.15 (x86_64) using readline 5.1

Most Linux distributions, such as Amazon Linux, CentOS, SUSE, and Debian have replaced MySQL with MariaDB, and the mysql version in them is from MariaDB.

To connect to your DB instance using SSL/TLS, follow these steps:

To connect to a DB instance with SSL/TLS using the MySQL command-line client

  1. Download a root certificate that works for all Amazon Web Services Regions.

    For information about downloading certificates, see Using SSL/TLS to encrypt a connection to a DB instance.

  2. Use a MySQL command-line client to connect to a DB instance with SSL/TLS encryption. For the -h parameter, substitute the DNS name (endpoint) for your DB instance. For the --ssl-ca parameter, substitute the SSL/TLS certificate file name. For the -P parameter, substitute the port for your DB instance. For the -u parameter, substitute the user name of a valid database user, such as the master user. Enter the master user password when prompted.

    The following example shows how to launch the client using the --ssl-ca parameter using the MariaDB client:

    mysql -h myinstance.123456789012.rds-cn-north-1.amazonaws.com --ssl-ca=global-bundle.pem --ssl -P 3306 -u myadmin -p

    To require that the SSL/TLS connection verifies the DB instance endpoint against the endpoint in the SSL/TLS certificate, enter the following command:

    mysql -h myinstance.123456789012.rds-cn-north-1.amazonaws.com --ssl-ca=global-bundle.pem --ssl-verify-server-cert -P 3306 -u myadmin -p

    The following example shows how to launch the client using the --ssl-ca parameter using the MySQL 5.7 client or later:

    mysql -h myinstance.123456789012.rds-cn-north-1.amazonaws.com --ssl-ca=global-bundle.pem --ssl-mode=REQUIRED -P 3306 -u myadmin -p

  3. Enter the master user password when prompted.

You should see output similar to the following.

Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 31
Server version: 10.6.10-MariaDB-log Source distribution
 
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
  
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]>