Modern authentication is less about what a client knows and more about whether it can be trusted To support this approach, SingleStore now offers mutual TLS (mTLS) as a native authentication mechanism for database users.

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SingleStore now supports mutual TLS (mTLS) as a native authentication mechanism for database users, moving beyond password-based credentials. mTLS authenticates both client and server during the TLS handshake using certificates validated against a trusted CA bundle configured per cluster. Users can be configured with REQUIRE X509 to enforce certificate presence or REQUIRE SUBJECT to bind access to a specific certificate identity (Subject DN). This approach eliminates shared-secret risks, rejects untrusted clients at the handshake level, and makes impersonation significantly harder. The post outlines adoption steps: configure a trusted CA bundle, issue client certificates, set user-level certificate requirements, and optionally enforce Subject DN matching.

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