Bug #80077 mysqld --verbose --help tries to initialize keyring file

• Submitted: 20 Jan 2016 14:18
• Modified: 22 Jan 2016 16:06
• Reporter: Paul DuBois
• Status: Closed
• Category: MySQL Server: Security: Encryption
• Severity: S3 (Non-critical)
• Version: 5.7.11
• OS: Any
• CPU Architecture: Any

[20 Jan 2016 14:18] Paul DuBois

Description:
If I run mysqld --verbose --help as a user *other* than the owner of the MySQL installation, the server tries to initialize the keyring file, even though that activity is irrelevant to production of the help message.

How to repeat:
Run the command as mysql (or whatever account owns the MySQL installation):

% mysqld --verbose --help >/dev/null

No error occurs.

Run the command as a user other than mysql:

% mysqld --verbose --help >/dev/null
2016-01-20T14:12:38.398616Z 0 [ERROR] Plugin keyring_file reported: 'keyring_file initialization failure. Please check if the keyring_file_data points to readable keyring file or keyring file can be created in the specified location. The keyring_file will stay unusable until correct path to the keyring file gets provided'

An error occurs.

(I redirected stdout to /dev/null to make it easier to see the error message on stderr.)

Suggested fix:
Don't initialize the keyring file when mysqld is asked only for a help message.

Perhaps this has something to do with --early-plugin-load (which by default loads the keyring_file plugin).

[22 Jan 2016 14:58] Paul DuBois

Noted in 5.7.12, 5.8.0 changelogs.

The server attempted to initialize plugins specified using the
--early-plugin-load option even when the --help option was specified.