This section describes how to use the openssl command to set up the RSA key files that enable MySQL to support secure password exchange over unencrypted connections for accounts authenticated by the sha256_password plugin.

To create the RSA private and public key-pair files, run these commands while logged into the system account used to run the MySQL server so the files are owned by that account:

openssl genrsa -out private_key.pem 2048
openssl rsa -in private_key.pem -pubout -out public_key.pem

Those commands create 2,048-bit keys. To create stronger keys, use a larger value.

Then set the access modes for the key files. The private key should be readable only by the server, whereas the public key can be freely distributed to client users:

chmod 400 private_key.pem
chmod 444 public_key.pem