MariaDB Logging and old password support

For old password compatibility, do

SET GLOBAL old_passwords = 1;
SET PASSWORD FOR 'repl'@'%' = PASSWORD('the_password');
SET GLOBAL old_passwords = 0;

We can also try SET GLOBAL secure_auth=OFF; however I found this made no difference when running MariaDB 10.5 and attempting to connect with an old (presumable 4.1) client.

 

Viewing still shows the new format (long string)

SELECT user, host, authentication_string
FROM mysql.user
WHERE user='repl';

If we know the hash of the old password, we can compare it with:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'old_passwords';

To enable logging, first check the variables;

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'log_warnings';
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'general_log';
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'general_log_file';
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'datadir';

then do;

SET GLOBAL general_log = ON;

Don't forget to switch it off again with: SET GLOBAL general_log = OFF;