22.2.5.5. Using the Windows Native Authentication Plugin

Connector/Net applications can authenticate to a MySQL server using the Windows Native Authentication Plugin as of Connector/Net 6.4.4 and MySQL 5.5.16/5.6.10. Users who have logged in to Windows can connect from MySQL client programs to the server based on the information in their environment without specifying an additional password. For background and usage information about the authentication plugin, see, Section 6.3.7.4, "The Windows Native Authentication Plugin".

The interface matches the MySql.Data.MySqlClient object. To enable, pass in Integrated Security to the connection string with a value of yes or sspi.

Passing in a user ID is optional. When Windows authentication is set up, a MySQL user is created and configured to be used by Windows authentication. By default, this user ID is named auth_windows, but can be defined using a different name. If the default name is used, then passing the user ID to the connection string from Connector/Net is optional, because it will use the auth_windows user. Otherwise, the name must be passed to the connection string using the standard user ID element.