I often get asked how to set up and use SSL with MySQL, especially on Windows – I think largely because the manual step-by-step is more geared towards Linux users (though this “how-to” is valid for all – anyone can copy/paste the commands after changing the paths).

So I’ve compiled a concise, yet comprehensive, how-to that I wanted to share with everyone out there who wants to set this up quickly and efficiently.

And for those who haven’t done it, setting up SSL can often seem intimidating, so I want to dispell that myth while I’m at it, and show you how quick and easy it can be to set up SSL for MySQL.

For one, I should mention that I’m using a version where SSL is ‘available’, just ‘DISABLED’ (some versions can be compiled w/out ssl support – so those would not work):

mysql> show global …

If you’re using MySQL and SSL, you might want to glance over this article and give your setup a quick test.

I’ve uncovered an alarming bug in 5.5 where one could gain access to your MySQL instance just knowing the username and password (not having any SSL certificate, key, etc.)!

Of course, I’ve filed a bug about it here:

http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=62743

It’s been over 4 days now, and not one comment from the MySQL Bug/Dev Team.

So once again, I feel the need to share this bug with the public, in case you are using SSL with 5.5, and think your connections are secure, or that only users with the certs/key could gain access.

For SSL Users, you’ll already have this set up, but for those who don’t, I’ve simply got mysqld (5.5.15 and 5.5.16 thus far) running with the following options:

ssl-ca      = …