5.8.7. Using Secure Connections
MySQL supports secure (encrypted) connections between MySQL
clients and the server using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
protocol. This section discusses how to use SSL connections. It
also describes a way to set up SSH on Windows. For information
on requiring users to use SSL connections, see
Section 13.5.1.3, “GRANT Syntax”.
The standard configuration of MySQL is intended to be as fast as
possible, so encrypted connections are not used by default.
Doing so would make the client/server protocol much slower.
Encrypting data is a CPU-intensive operation that requires the
computer to do additional work and can delay other MySQL tasks.
For applications that require the security provided by encrypted
connections, the extra computation is warranted.
MySQL allows encryption to be enabled on a per-connection basis.
You can choose a normal unencrypted connection or a secure
encrypted SSL connection according the requirements of
individual applications.
