How do I turn off the mysql password validation?

Question

It seems that I may have inadvertently loaded the password validation plugin in MySQL 5.7. This plugin seems to force all passwords to comply to certain rules.

I would l

Answer 1

On some installations, you cannot execute this command until you have reset the root password. You cannot reset the root password, until you execute this command. Classic Catch-22.

One solution not mention by other responders is to temporarily disable the plugin via mysql configuration. In any my.cnf, in the [mysqld] section, add:

skip-validate_password=1

and restart the server. Change the password, and set the value back to 0, and restart again.