# MySQL plugin change from native to caching sha2

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/mysql-plugin-change-from-native-to-caching-sha2/38290>\
**Category:** MySQL & MariaDB\
**Created:** [June 11, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/mysql-plugin-change-from-native-to-caching-sha2/38290 "2025-06-11T17:11:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hussain\_Patel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/hussain_patel/32/17808_2.png) [@Hussain\_Patel](https://forums.percona.com/u/Hussain_Patel)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/mysql-plugin-change-from-native-to-caching-sha2/38290/1 "2025-06-11T17:11:27Z")

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Hi Percona,  
How to change the plugin of users from mysql\_native to caching\_sha2 for which we dont know the password. Any way to make it happen ?  
we want to keep the same password and just change the plugin and we dont know the passwords as we dont store it anywhere.

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**Author:** ![Roberto\_Garcia\_de\_Be](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/roberto_garcia_de_be/32/6986_2.png) [@Roberto\_Garcia\_de\_Be](https://forums.percona.com/u/Roberto_Garcia_de_Be)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/mysql-plugin-change-from-native-to-caching-sha2/38290/2 "2025-06-11T17:22:39Z")

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Hi Hussain,

Unfortunately, it is not possible to change the plugin without knowing the password. This is because the passwords created with `mysql_native_password` cannot be decrypted. If you do know the passwords, you can alter the user to change the authentication plugin by sending the same password in plain text on the command line.

```auto
ALTER USER 'user'@'host' IDENTIFIED WITH caching_sha2_password BY 'same_password';

```

Doc link for references: [https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.4/en/alter-user.html](https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.4/en/alter-user.html)

Best