> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/maxscale/maxscale-security.md).

# MaxScale Security

- [Securing Your MaxScale Deployment](https://mariadb.com/docs/maxscale/maxscale-security/securing-your-maxscale-deployment.md): Essential hardening steps for production MaxScale environments. Learn to encrypt passwords, secure the REST API with TLS, enable audit logging, and configure encrypted database connections.
- [Authentication Modules](https://mariadb.com/docs/maxscale/maxscale-security/authentication-modules.md): Understand how MaxScale handles MySQL protocol authentication. This guide covers the User Account Manager, required database grants, and general authentication settings like matching hosts.
- [MaxScale Authentication](https://mariadb.com/docs/maxscale/maxscale-security/maxscale-authentication.md): Explore the supported authentication methods in MariaDB MaxScale. Learn how authenticators validate clients and backend servers using plugins like Native, PAM, GSSAPI, etc.
- [Native Authenticator](https://mariadb.com/docs/maxscale/maxscale-security/maxscale-authentication/native-authenticator.md): Authenticate clients using the default Native Authenticator. This guide explains how MaxScale validates passwords against backend servers using the standard MariaDB authentication plugin.