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 like to turn this off.
I've tried changing the validate_password_length variable as suggested here to no avail.
mysql> SET GLOBAL validate_password_length=4;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'app' = PASSWORD('abcd');
ERROR 1819 (HY000): Your password does not satisfy the current policy requirements
I would like to either unload the plugin or neuter it somehow.
Here is what I do to remove the validate password plugin:
mysql -h localhost -u root -p
uninstall plugin validate_password;
UNINSTALL COMPONENT 'file://component_validate_password';
I would not recommend this solution for a production system. I used this solution on a local mysql instance for development purposes only.