MySQL 5.7 aims to be the most secure MySQL Server release ever, and that means some significant changes in SSL/TLS.  This post aims to tie together individual enhancements introduced over the span of several Development Milestone Releases (DMRs) into the larger initiative.  In the simplest terms, we hope to have a minimal TLS configuration enabled by default, and for connections to prefer TLS by default.  Let’s dig into the various aspects of this:

Generation of TLS key material

MySQL Server has long supported TLS connections, yet very few deployments are actually configured to leverage this.  This is partly because creation of key material – the certificates and keys needed to establish TLS connections – is a multi-step, extra, manual process.  Basic TLS concepts have to be understood, third-party software …

Prior to MySQL 5.7, the CREATE USER command had a number of limitations:

• No way to set both authentication plugin and password
• No way to disable a user
• No way to define user resource limitations
• No way to set a non-default password expiration policy
• No way to require SSL/x509

All of these things could be done through other means, but typically involved other statements, such as GRANT commands.  Starting with MySQL 5.7.6, these can all be done through a new and improved CREATE USER syntax:

Passwords and authentication plugin

The most important aspect to me, from a security perspective, is the ability to now create user accounts with non-default authentication plugins (like sha256_password) and a non-blank password:

mysql> CREATE USER new@localhost
-> IDENTIFIED WITH sha256_password …

MySQL has provided support for proxy users since version 5.5, but the roles-like capabilities offered have been largely unnoticed until recently.  Part of that has been due to limitations on which types of accounts could leverage proxy user capabilities.  This changes with the release of MySQL Server 5.7.7 (Release Candidate), which includes support for proxy user mapping for the standard mysql_native_password and sha256_password authentication plugins.  This post will introduce the new functionality and explain how to leverage it to emulate certain features …

Years ago when I worked for the MySQL Support organization at the original MySQL AB, we spoke about MySQL Support as insurance and focused on a value proposition similar to that of car insurance. For your car to be fully covered, you must purchase car insurance before the incident happens – in fact most places around the world require automobile insurance. Similarly with many organizations, any production-use technology might be mandated to have its own insurance in the way of 24/7 support.

I think however this is a very one-sided view that does not capture the full value (and ROI) that a MySQL Support contract with Percona provides. Let’s look at the different dimensions of value it provides based on the different support cases we have received throughout the years.

Reduce and Prevent …

MySQL 5.7.6 brings in a simplification that solves the very first problem that I encountered back in the days when I first started using MySQL 5.0. Namely…

How do I create a new database instance?

I know it sounds like a very basic question. But as it turned out, the answer was not that simple. I tried mysqld --help. Nothing there. And then, after reading the manual and trying out the complex command line (including redirection) based steps a couple of times, I just resorted to employing the mysql-test-run.pl test suite driver to create the initial system tables and data for me.

Obviously this has …

The CVE-2015-0204 FREAK SSL vulnerability abuses intentionally weak “EXPORT” ciphers which could be used to perform a transparent Man In The Middle attack. (We seem to be continually bombarded with not only SSL vulnerabilities but the need to name vulnerabilities with increasing odd names.)

Is your server vulnerable?

This can be tested using the following GIST

If the result is 0; the server is not providing the EXPORT cipher; and as such is not vulnerable.

Is your client vulnerable?

Point your client to https://oneiroi.co.uk:4443/test if this returns “Vulnerable” then the client is vulnerable, if you find a connection error your client should not be vulnerable for example:

root@host:/tmp$ openssl …

Talking with Percona Live attendees last year I heard a couple of common themes. First, people told me that there is a lot of great advanced content at Percona Live but there is not much for people just starting to learn the ropes with MySQL. Second, they would like us to find a way to make such basic content less expensive.

I’m pleased to say we’re able to accommodate both of these wishes this year at Percona Live! We have created a two-day intensive track called “MySQL 101” that runs April 15-16. MySQL 101 is designed for developers, system administrators and DBAs familiar with other databases but not with MySQL. And of course it’s ideal for anyone else who would like to expand their professional experience to include MySQL. The sessions are designed to lay a solid foundation on many aspects of MySQL development, design and …

Hi there, it’s been a few months since Percona Live London has finished, but I managed just now to get sometime to post the slides from my presentation about backups. Please, take a look and feel free to comment.

Pdf Version

…

Cloud security company Qualys announced Tuesday the issues prevalent in glibc since version 2.2 introduced in 2000-11-10 (the complete Qualys announcement may be viewed here). The vulnerability, CVE-2015-0235, has been dubbed “GHOST.”

As the announcement from Qualys indicates, it is believed that MySQL and by extension Percona Server are not affected by this issue.

Percona is in the process of conducting our own review into the issue related to the Percona Server source code – more information will be released as soon as it is available.

In the interim the current advisory is to update your glibc packages for your distributions if they are in fact vulnerable. The C code from the Qualys announcement may aid in your diagnostics, section 4 of …

Qualys announced they had found an exploit in one of the Linux core libraries – glibc – using a buffer overflow technique in gethostbyname(). They have developed a proof-of-concept in which simply sending a specially created e-mail to a mail server enabled them to create a remote shell to the Linux machine. According to Qualys, “This bypasses all existing protections (like ASLR, PIE and NX) on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.”. How does it affect MySQL servers? Read on!

The vulnerable library call provides DNS name resolution and although it’s been obsoleted in favour of other calls, it is still widely used by both legacy and modern applications.

Having a quick search, MySQL does not seem to rely on gethostbyname() almost at all. A few uses can be found in MySQL Cluster code (NDB), …