> 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/maxscale-authentication.md).

# MaxScale Authentication

## Overview

In MariaDB MaxScale, authenticators perform the following tasks:

* Authenticating clients that connect to MaxScale
* Authenticating connections to back-end MariaDB Enterprise Server and MariaDB Xpand nodes
* Deciding how authentication should be performed

## Authenticators Supported by MaxScale

* [GSSAPI Authenticator](/docs/maxscale/reference/maxscale-authenticators/maxscale-gssapi-client-authenticator.md)
* [Native Authenticator](/docs/maxscale/reference/maxscale-authenticators/maxscale-mariadb-mysql-authenticator.md)
* [PAM Authenticator](/docs/maxscale/reference/maxscale-authenticators/maxscale-pam-authenticator.md)
* [PARSEC Authenticator](/docs/maxscale/reference/maxscale-authenticators/maxscale-parsec-authenticator.md)
* [ed25519 Authenticator](/docs/maxscale/reference/maxscale-authenticators/maxscale-ed25519-authenticator.md)