Understanding the changes in the Root CA change for Azure Database for MariaDB

Article
06/24/2022

Important

Azure Database for MariaDB is on the retirement path. We strongly recommend that you migrate to Azure Database for MySQL. For more information about migrating to Azure Database for MySQL, see What's happening to Azure Database for MariaDB?.

Azure database for MariaDB as part of standard maintenance and security best practices complete the root certificate change starting March 2023. This article gives you more details about the changes, the resources affected, and the steps needed to ensure that your application maintains connectivity to your database server.

Note

This article contains references to the term slave, a term that Microsoft no longer uses. When the term is removed from the software, we'll remove it from this article.

Why root certificate update is required?

Azure Database for MariaDB users can only use the predefined certificate to connect to their MariaDB server, which is located here. However, Certificate Authority (CA) Browser forum recently published reports of multiple certificates issued by CA vendors to be noncompliant.

As per the industry's compliance requirements, CA vendors began revoking CA certificates for noncompliant CAs, requiring servers to use certificates issued by compliant CAs, and signed by CA certificates from those compliant CAs. Since Azure Database for MariaDB used one of these noncompliant certificates, we needed to rotate the certificate to the compliant version to minimize the potential threat to your MySQL servers.

Do I need to make any changes on my client to maintain connectivity?

If you followed steps mentioned under Create a combined CA certificate below, you can continue to connect as long as BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot certificate is not removed from the combined CA certificate. To maintain connectivity, we recommend that you retain the BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot in your combined CA certificate until further notice.

Create a combined CA certificate

Download BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot & DigiCertGlobalRootG2 CA from links below:
- https://www.digicert.com/CACerts/BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot.crt.pem
- https://cacerts.digicert.com/DigiCertGlobalRootG2.crt.pem
Generate a combined CA certificate store with both BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot and DigiCertGlobalRootG2 certificates are included.
- For Java (MariaDB Connector/J) users, execute:
```
keytool -importcert -alias MariaDBServerCACert  -file D:\BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot.crt.pem  -keystore truststore -storepass password -noprompt
```
```
keytool -importcert -alias MariaDBServerCACert2  -file D:\DigiCertGlobalRootG2.crt.pem -keystore truststore -storepass password  -noprompt
```
  Then replace the original keystore file with the new generated one:
  - System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore","path_to_truststore_file");
  - System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword","password");
- For .NET (MariaDB Connector/NET, MariaDBConnector) users, make sure BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot and DigiCertGlobalRootG2 both exist in Windows Certificate Store, Trusted Root Certification Authorities. If any certificates don't exist, import the missing certificate.
- For .NET users on Linux using SSL_CERT_DIR, make sure BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot and DigiCertGlobalRootG2 both exist in the directory indicated by SSL_CERT_DIR. If any certificates don't exist, create the missing certificate file.
- For other (MariaDB Client/MariaDB Workbench/C/C++/Go/Python/Ruby/PHP/NodeJS/Perl/Swift) users, you can merge two CA certificate files like this format below
```
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
(Root CA1: BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot.crt.pem)
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
(Root CA2: DigiCertGlobalRootG2.crt.pem)
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
```
Replace the original root CA pem file with the combined root CA file and restart your application/client.
In future, after the new certificate deployed on the server side, you can change your CA pem file to DigiCertGlobalRootG2.crt.pem.

If I'm not using SSL/TLS, do I still need to update the root CA?

No actions are required if you aren't using SSL/TLS.

What if we removed the BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot certificate?

You'll start to see connectivity errors while connecting to your Azure Database for MariaDB server. You'll need to configure SSL with BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot certificate again to maintain connectivity.

Frequently asked questions

1. If I'm not using SSL/TLS, do I still need to update the root CA?

No actions required if you aren't using SSL/TLS.

2. If I'm using SSL/TLS, do I need to restart my database server to update the root CA?

No, you don't need to restart the database server to start using the new certificate. Certificate update is a client-side change, and the incoming client connections need to use the new certificate to ensure that they can connect to the database server.

3. How do I know if I'm using SSL/TLS with root certificate verification?

You can identify whether your connections verify the root certificate by reviewing your connection string.

If your connection string includes sslmode=verify-ca or sslmode=verify-identity, you need to update the certificate.
If your connection string includes sslmode=disable, sslmode=allow, sslmode=prefer, or sslmode=require, you don't need to update certificates.
If your connection string doesn't specify sslmode, you don't need to update certificates.

If you're using a client that abstracts the connection string away, review the client's documentation to understand whether it verifies certificates.

4. What is the impact if using App Service with Azure Database for MariaDB?

For Azure app services, connecting to Azure Database for MariaDB, there are two possible scenarios depending on how on you're using SSL with your application.

This new certificate has been added to App Service at platform level. If you're using the SSL certificates included on App Service platform in your application, then no action is needed. This is the most common scenario.
If you're explicitly including the path to SSL cert file in your code, then you would need to download the new cert and update the code to use the new cert. A good example of this scenario is when you use custom containers in App Service as shared in the App Service documentation. This is an uncommon scenario but we have seen some users using this.

5. What is the impact if using Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) with Azure Database for MariaDB?

If you're trying to connect to the Azure Database for MariaDB using Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS), it's similar to access from a dedicated customers host environment. Refer to the steps here.

6. What is the impact if using Azure Data Factory to connect to Azure Database for MariaDB?

For connector using Azure Integration Runtime, the connector uses certificates in the Windows Certificate Store in the Azure-hosted environment. These certificates are already compatible to the newly applied certificates and so no action is needed.

For connector using Self-hosted Integration Runtime where you explicitly include the path to SSL cert file in your connection string, you need to download the new certificate and update the connection string to use it.

7. Do I need to plan a database server maintenance downtime for this change?

No. Since the change here's only on the client side to connect to the database server, there's no maintenance downtime needed for the database server for this change.

8. How often does Microsoft update their certificates or what is the expiry policy?

These certificates used by Azure Database for MariaDB are provided by trusted Certificate Authorities (CA). So the support of these certificates is tied to the support of these certificates by CA. The BaltimoreCyberTrustRoot certificate is scheduled to expire in 2025 so Microsoft needs to perform a certificate change before the expiry.

9. If I'm using read replicas, do I need to perform this update only on source server or the read replicas?

Since this update is a client-side change, if the client used to read data from the replica server, you need to apply the changes for those clients as well.

10. If I'm using Data-in replication, do I need to perform any action?

If the data-replication is from a virtual machine (on-premises or Azure virtual machine) to Azure Database for MySQL, you need to check if SSL is being used to create the replica. Run SHOW SLAVE STATUS and check the following setting.

Master_SSL_Allowed            : Yes
Master_SSL_CA_File            : ~\azure_mysqlservice.pem
Master_SSL_CA_Path            :
Master_SSL_Cert               : ~\azure_mysqlclient_cert.pem
Master_SSL_Cipher             :
Master_SSL_Key                : ~\azure_mysqlclient_key.pem

If you're using Data-in replication to connect to Azure Database for MySQL, there are two things to consider:

If the data-replication is from a virtual machine (on-premises or Azure virtual machine) to Azure Database for MySQL, you need to check if SSL is being used to create the replica. Run SHOW SLAVE STATUS and check the following setting.
```
Master_SSL_Allowed            : Yes
Master_SSL_CA_File            : ~\azure_mysqlservice.pem
Master_SSL_CA_Path            :
Master_SSL_Cert               : ~\azure_mysqlclient_cert.pem
Master_SSL_Cipher             :
Master_SSL_Key                : ~\azure_mysqlclient_key.pem
```
If you do see the certificate is provided for the CA_file, SSL_Cert and SSL_Key, you'll need to update the file by adding the new certificate and create a combined cert file.
If the data-replication is between two Azure Database for MySQL, then you need to reset the replica by executing CALL mysql.az_replication_change_master and provide the new dual root certificate as last parameter master_ssl_ca.

11. Do we have server-side query to verify if SSL is being used?

To verify if you're using SSL connection to connect to the server refer SSL verification.

12. Is there an action needed if I already have the DigiCertGlobalRootG2 in my certificate file?

No. There's no action needed if your certificate file already has the DigiCertGlobalRootG2.

13. What if I have further questions?

If you have questions, get answers from community experts in Microsoft Q&A. If you have a support plan and you need technical help, contact us.

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