MySQL founder urged users to suspend MySQL 5.1 deployment

Monty Widenius, the founder of the open-source MySQL database, recently criticized MySQL 5.1 in a blog, believing that although the version has been officially GA, there are still many unrepaired vulnerabilities. sun officials responded to his opinion that Widenius's opinion does not represent the entire user community. Before a company deploys any software, whether it is MySQL or other software, all tests should be performed first.

MySQL founder Monty Widenius warned enterprise users to be cautious when upgrading to MySQL 5.1.

Sun has recently made public its version of MySQL 5.1. Users can download the latest version of MySQL database. however, Widenius recently urged enterprise users to suspend MySQL 5.1 deployment because of many unsolved vulnerabilities and new features such as partition introduced.

Widenius wrote in his blog: "If you only think that MySQL 5.1 is a better version than MySQL 5.0 and do not plan to use some of its new features, you can try MySQL 5. 1. however, you should not deploy the new database in the production environment without full testing. A more correct choice is to wait for several patches and fixes to be released, then deploy it in the production environment."

According to Widenius, there are 20 new known vulnerabilities in MySQL 5.1, and there are also several existing vulnerabilities in MySQL 5.0. in general, MySQL 5.1 still has up to 180 serious vulnerabilities.

It is ironic that the last reason why MySQL 5.1 postponed GA was that the vulnerability was not fixed. in March, Sun announced that the GA date for MySQL 5.1 was postponed. four months later, Zack Urlocker, Sun's vice president of the database, was still declaring that due to too many vulnerabilities, the database's GA date was postponed.

Sun spokesman responded to the criticism of Widenius, saying that not all MySQL Community Members support Widenius's opinion, sun has always recommended that enterprise users perform detailed testing before deploying any software in the production system, whether it is MySQL or other software. at the same time, Sun will continue to develop MySQL 5.1, which will be updated in the near future.

MySQL 5.1 has been developed for about three years. Many of its new features can improve performance, including the partition function, row-based replication, and the new Application Programming Interface (APIs ). matt Aslett, an analyst from the 451 group, said MySQL 5.0 has been around for a long time since it was announced that GA can be deployed to the production environment. Therefore, it is not surprising that MySQL 5.1 is in this situation.

However, he added that, despite these new features, the unrepaired vulnerabilities that already exist in 5.0 will become a concern for enterprise users.

Aslett said that new products will inevitably have vulnerabilities and should be cautious when deployed to the production environment. however, it is worrying that many serious vulnerabilities in MySQL 5.0 are still not fixed. in addition, Monty Widenius publicly exposes the vulnerabilities in this version of the database, indicating that the development process and release cycle of this open source database have a wide range of problems. If Sun wants to promote the development of this open source database, you need to solve these problems first.

1. MySQL 5.1.30 is released three years ahead of schedule.
2. MySQL Enterprise major update add query analysis tool
3. Sun announced the launch of server-specific MySQL Solutions