TLS Connections to TiDB Cloud Dedicated

On TiDB Cloud, establishing TLS connections is one of the basic security practices for connecting to TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters. You can configure multiple TLS connections from your client, application, and development tools to your TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster to protect data transmission security. For security reasons, TiDB Cloud Dedicated only supports TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3, and does not support TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 versions.

To ensure data security, TiDB cluster CA for your TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster is hosted on AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), and TiDB cluster private keys are stored in AWS-managed hardware security modules (HSMs) that meet FIPS 140-2 Level 3 security standards.

Prerequisites

  • Log in to TiDB Cloud via Password Authentication or SSO Authentication, and then Create a TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster.

  • Set a password to access your cluster in secure settings.

    To do so, you can navigate to the Clusters page of your project, click ... in the row of your TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster, and then select Password Settings. In password settings, you can click Auto-generate Password to automatically generate a root password with a length of 16 characters, including numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters, and special characters.

Secure connection to a TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster

In the TiDB Cloud console, you can get examples of different connection methods and connect to your TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster as follows:

  1. Navigate to the Clusters page of your project, and then click the name of your TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster to go to its overview page.

  2. Click Connect in the upper-right corner. A dialog is displayed.

  3. In the connection dialog, select Public from the Connection Type drop-down list.

    If you have not configured the IP access list, click Configure IP Access List to configure it before your first connection. For more information, see Configure an IP access list.

  4. Click CA cert to download CA cert for TLS connection to TiDB clusters. The CA cert supports TLS 1.2 version by default.

  5. Choose your preferred connection method, and then refer to the connection string and sample code on the tab to connect to your cluster.

The following examples show the connection strings in MySQL, MyCLI, JDBC, Python, Go, and Node.js:

  • MySQL CLI
  • MyCLI
  • JDBC
  • Python
  • Go
  • Node.js

MySQL CLI client attempts to establish a TLS connection by default. When you connect to TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters, you need to set ssl-mode and ssl-ca.

mysql --connect-timeout 15 --ssl-mode=VERIFY_IDENTITY --ssl-ca=ca.pem --tls-version="TLSv1.2" -u root -h tidb.eqlfbdgthh8.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com -P 4000 -D test -p

Parameter description:

  • With --ssl-mode=VERIFY_IDENTITY, MySQL CLI client forces to enable TLS and validate TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters.
  • Use --ssl-ca=<CA_path> to specify your local path of the downloaded TiDB cluster ca.pem.
  • Use --tls-version=TLSv1.2 to restrict the versions of the TLS protocol. If you want to use TLS 1.3, you can set the version to TLSv1.3.

MyCLI automatically enables TLS when using TLS related parameters. When you connect to TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters, you need to set ssl-ca and ssl-verify-server-cert.

mycli --ssl-ca=ca.pem --ssl-verify-server-cert -u root -h tidb.eqlfbdgthh8.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com -P 4000 -D test

Parameter descriptions:

  • Use --ssl-ca=<CA_path> to specify your local path of the downloaded TiDB cluster ca.pem.
  • With --ssl-verify-server-cert to validate TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters.

MySQL Connector/J's TLS connection configurations are used here as an example.

After downloading TiDB cluster CA, if you want to import it into your operating system, you can use the keytool -importcert -alias TiDBCACert -file ca.pem -keystore <your_custom_truststore_path> -storepass <your_truststore_password> command.

/* Be sure to replace the parameters in the following connection string. */ /* version >= 8.0.28 */ jdbc:mysql://tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com:4000/test?user=root&password=<your_password>&sslMode=VERIFY_IDENTITY&tlsVersions=TLSv1.2&trustCertificateKeyStoreUrl=file:<your_custom_truststore_path>&trustCertificateKeyStorePassword=<your_truststore_password>

You can click show example usage to view detailed code examples.

import com.mysql.jdbc.Driver; import java.sql.*; class Main { public static void main(String args[]) throws SQLException, ClassNotFoundException { Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver"); try { Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com:4000/test?user=root&password=<your_password>&sslMode=VERIFY_IDENTITY&tlsVersions=TLSv1.2&trustCertificateKeyStoreUrl=file:<your_custom_truststore_path>&trustCertificateKeyStorePassword=<your_truststore_password>"); Statement stmt = conn.createStatement(); try { ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT DATABASE();"); if (rs.next()) { System.out.println("using db:" + rs.getString(1)); } } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("exec error:" + e); } } catch (Exception e) { System.out.println("connect error:" + e); } } }

Parameter description:

  • Set sslMode=VERIFY_IDENTITY to enable TLS and validate TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters.
  • Set enabledTLSProtocols=TLSv1.2 to restrict the versions of the TLS protocol. If you want to use TLS 1.3, you can set the version to TLSv1.3.
  • Set trustCertificateKeyStoreUrl to your custom truststore path.
  • Set trustCertificateKeyStorePassword to your truststore password.

mysqlclient's TLS connection configurations are used here as an example.

host="tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com", user="root", password="<your_password>", port=4000, database="test", ssl_mode="VERIFY_IDENTITY", ssl={"ca": "ca.pem"}

You can click show example usage to view detailed code examples.

import MySQLdb connection = MySQLdb.connect(host="tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com", port=4000, user="root", password="<your_password>", database="test", ssl_mode="VERIFY_IDENTITY", ssl={"ca": "ca.pem"}) with connection: with connection.cursor() as cursor: cursor.execute("SELECT DATABASE();") m = cursor.fetchone() print(m[0])

Parameter descriptions:

  • Set ssl_mode="VERIFY_IDENTITY" to enable TLS and validate TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters.
  • Use ssl={"ca": "<CA_path>"} to specify your local path of the downloaded TiDB cluster ca.pem.

Go-MySQL-Driver's TLS connection configurations are used here as an example.

rootCertPool := x509.NewCertPool() pem, err := ioutil.ReadFile("ca.pem") if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } if ok := rootCertPool.AppendCertsFromPEM(pem); !ok { log.Fatal("Failed to append PEM.") } mysql.RegisterTLSConfig("tidb", &tls.Config{ RootCAs: rootCertPool, MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12, ServerName: "tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com", }) db, err := sql.Open("mysql", "root:<your_password>@tcp(tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com:4000)/test?tls=tidb")

You can click show example usage to view detailed code examples.

package main import ( "crypto/tls" "crypto/x509" "database/sql" "fmt" "io/ioutil" "log" "github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql" ) func main() { rootCertPool := x509.NewCertPool() pem, err := ioutil.ReadFile("ca.pem") if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } if ok := rootCertPool.AppendCertsFromPEM(pem); !ok { log.Fatal("Failed to append PEM.") } mysql.RegisterTLSConfig("tidb", &tls.Config{ RootCAs: rootCertPool, MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12, ServerName: "tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com", }) db, err := sql.Open("mysql", "root:<your_password>@tcp(tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com:4000)/test?tls=tidb") if err != nil { log.Fatal("failed to connect database", err) } defer db.Close() var dbName string err = db.QueryRow("SELECT DATABASE();").Scan(&dbName) if err != nil { log.Fatal("failed to execute query", err) } fmt.Println(dbName) }

Parameter descriptions:

  • Register tls.Config in the TLS connection configuration to enable TLS and validate TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters.
  • Set MinVersion: tls.VersionTLS12 to restrict the versions of TLS protocol.
  • Set ServerName: "<host>" to verify TiDB Cloud Dedicated's hostname.
  • If you do not want to register a new TLS configuration, you can just set tls=true in the connection string.

Mysql2's TLS connection configurations are used here as an example.

var connection = mysql.createConnection({ host: 'tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com', port: 4000, user: 'root', password: '<your_password>', database: 'test', ssl: { ca: fs.readFileSync('ca.pem'), minVersion: 'TLSv1.2', rejectUnauthorized: true } });

You can click show example usage to view detailed code examples.

var mysql = require('mysql2'); var fs = require('fs'); var connection = mysql.createConnection({ host: 'tidb.srgnqxji5bc.clusters.staging.tidb-cloud.com', port: 4000, user: 'root', password: '<your_password>', database: 'test', ssl: { ca: fs.readFileSync('ca.pem'), minVersion: 'TLSv1.2', rejectUnauthorized: true } }); connection.connect(function(err) { if (err) { throw err } connection.query('SELECT DATABASE();', function(err, rows) { if (err) { throw err } console.log(rows[0]['DATABASE()']); connection.end() }); });

Parameter descriptions:

  • Set ssl: {minVersion: 'TLSv1.2'} to restrict the versions of the TLS protocol. If you want to use TLS 1.3, you can set the version to TLSv1.3.
  • Set ssl: {ca: fs.readFileSync('<CA_path>')} to read your local CA path of the downloaded TiDB cluster ca.pem.

Manage root certificates for TiDB Cloud Dedicated

TiDB Cloud Dedicated uses certificates from AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) as a Certificate Authority (CA) for TLS connections between clients and TiDB Cloud Dedicated clusters. Usually, the root certificates of ACM are stored securely in AWS-managed hardware security modules (HSMs) that meet FIPS 140-2 Level 3 security standards.

FAQs

Which TLS versions are supported to connect to my TiDB Cloud Dedicated cluster?

For security reasons, TiDB Cloud Dedicated only supports TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3, and does not support TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 versions. See IETF Deprecating TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 for details.

Is two-way TLS authentication between my client and TiDB Cloud Dedicated supported?

No.

TiDB Cloud Dedicated only supports one-way TLS authentication, and does not support two-way TLS authentication currently. If you need two-way TLS authentication, contact TiDB Cloud Support.

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