I need to use Python to connect to a database that uses the mysql\_old\_password authentication plugin. I do not have db admin access so I cannot change this setting, so please do not suggest that.

I just installed the MySQLdb module, downloaded [here](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/MySQL-python/1.2.5). Other stackoverflow questions on this matter have led me to believe that it is possible to use the old authentication with this module, but when I set up my connection (db info removed for privacy reasons), I get the following error:

```
('Unexpected error:', <class '_mysql_exceptions.OperationalError'>)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "convert_db.py", line 48, in <module>
    main()
  File "convert_db.py", line 25, in main
    prod_con = MySQLdb.connect('xxxx', 'xxxx', 'xxxx', 'xxxx')
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/MySQLdb/__init__.py", line 81, in Connect
    return Connection(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py", line 193, in __init__
    super(Connection, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs2)
_mysql_exceptions.OperationalError: (2059, "Authentication plugin 'mysql_old_password' cannot be loaded: dlopen(/usr/local/mysql/lib/plugin/mysql_old_password.so, 2): image not found")

```

This seems to indicate that I just need to download the plugin image from somewhere - is this possible? Or is there some field I can set using MySQLdb that will allow me to connect?