Create the account and specify that it authenticates using the sha256_password plugin: CREATE USER 'sha256user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH sha256_password; 2. Set the old_passwords system variable to 2 to cause the PASSWORD() function to use SHA-256 hashing of password strings, then set the account password: SET old_passwords = 2; SET PASSWORD FOR 'sha256user'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('Sh@256Pa33');