How To Use Native Password With MySQL 5.7

MySQL started using system accounts to accept connections since version 5.7 using auth_socket password plugin. It might be required to connect to the MySQL Server using the root account with a password using mysql_native_password option. We can change the default behavior of root account to use native password using the commands as sown below.

# Login to MySQL
sudo mysql

# Check password scheme of root user
SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;

# Note the password plugin of root user
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| user             | authentication_string                     | plugin                | host      |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| root             |                                           | auth_socket           | localhost |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+

# Change password plugin of root user
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '<pw>';

# Apply changes
flush privileges;

# Check password scheme of root user
SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;

# Note the password plugin of root user
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| user             | authentication_string                     | plugin                | host      |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| root             | *E5C4F73D963132CEF9BB4PA79LA818C08BAQC300 | mysql_native_password | localhost |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+

This is how we can use the native password plugin for a MySQL user.