diff --git a/Config/database.php b/Config/database.php
index f992a4c..83cf82b 100644
--- a/Config/database.php
+++ b/Config/database.php
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ class DATABASE_CONFIG {
         'database' => '{{ MYSQL_DATABASE }}',
         'prefix' => '',
         'encoding' => 'utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
+{% if MYSQL_USE_TLS %}
+        'ssl_ca' => '{{ MYSQL_TLS_CA }}',
+{% endif %}
         'settings' => [
             'time_zone' => '"+00:00"',
     {% if MYSQL_SETTINGS -%}
@@ -19,9 +22,12 @@ class DATABASE_CONFIG {
         {% endfor %}
     {%- endif %}
         ],
-{% if MYSQL_FLAGS %}
+{% if MYSQL_FLAGS or (MYSQL_USE_TLS and not MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY) %}
         'flags' => [
-    {% for flag, value in MYSQL_FLAGS.items() %}
+{% if MYSQL_USE_TLS and not MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY %}
+            PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT => false,
+{% endif %}
+    {% for flag, value in (MYSQL_FLAGS or {}).items() %}
             '{{ flag }}' => '{{ value }}',
     {% endfor %}
         ]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7a1ebce..d573efc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -87,6 +87,9 @@ MISP requires MySQL or MariaDB database.
 * `MYSQL_DATABASE` (required, string) - database name
 * `MYSQL_SETTINGS` (optional, string) - database settings, which should be set for each db connection (JSON dict, or semicolon separated key value pairs)
 * `MYSQL_FLAGS` (required, string) - PDO flags which should be set for each db connection (JSON dict, or semicolon separated key value pairs)
+* `MYSQL_USE_TLS` (optional, bool, default `false`) - connect to the database over TLS; the server certificate and hostname are verified unless `MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY` is disabled
+* `MYSQL_TLS_CA` (optional, string, default `/etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/pem/tls-ca-bundle.pem`) - path to the CA certificate (PEM) used to verify the database server certificate, for example a mounted file with your internal CA
+* `MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY` (optional, bool, default `true`) - verify the database server certificate and hostname; set to `false` only if the server certificate cannot be verified (for example the self-signed certificate MariaDB generates automatically), the connection is then still encrypted, but not protected against man-in-the-middle attacks
 
 ### Redis
 
diff --git a/bin/misp_create_configs.py b/bin/misp_create_configs.py
index eecebb2..a8c1295 100644
--- a/bin/misp_create_configs.py
+++ b/bin/misp_create_configs.py
@@ -152,6 +152,9 @@ def parse_mysql_settings(variable_name: str, value: str) -> dict:
     "MYSQL_DATABASE": Option(required=True),
     "MYSQL_SETTINGS": Option(required=False, parser=parse_mysql_settings),
     "MYSQL_FLAGS": Option(required=False, parser=parse_mysql_settings),
+    "MYSQL_USE_TLS": Option(typ=bool, default=False),
+    "MYSQL_TLS_CA": Option(default="/etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/pem/tls-ca-bundle.pem"),
+    "MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY": Option(typ=bool, default=True),
     # Redis
     "REDIS_HOST": Option(required=True),
     "REDIS_PORT": Option(typ=int, default=6379, validation=check_uint),
@@ -594,6 +597,12 @@ def create():
         if not variables[var]:
             variables[var] = variables[var.replace("_INNER", "")]
 
+    if variables["MYSQL_USE_TLS"] and not os.access(variables["MYSQL_TLS_CA"], os.R_OK):
+        error(f"TLS for MySQL is enabled, but CA file '{variables['MYSQL_TLS_CA']}' from 'MYSQL_TLS_CA' does not exist or is not readable")
+
+    if variables["MYSQL_USE_TLS"] and not variables["MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY"]:
+        warning("TLS certificate verification for MySQL is disabled ('MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY' is false). The connection is encrypted, but not protected against man-in-the-middle attacks.")
+
     if variables["OIDC_LOGIN"]:
         for var in ("OIDC_PROVIDER", "OIDC_CLIENT_CRYPTO_PASS", "OIDC_CLIENT_ID", "OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET"):
             if not variables[var]:
diff --git a/bin/misp_create_database.py b/bin/misp_create_database.py
index eab4681..54d9d69 100644
--- a/bin/misp_create_database.py
+++ b/bin/misp_create_database.py
@@ -10,19 +10,49 @@
 from pymysql.connections import Connection
 from typing import Optional, TextIO
 
+DEFAULT_TLS_CA = "/etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/pem/tls-ca-bundle.pem"
 
-def connect(host: str, port: int, user: str, password: Optional[str]) -> pymysql.connections.Connection:
-    connection = pymysql.connect(host=host, port=port, user=user, password=password, connect_timeout=1, client_flag=CLIENT.MULTI_STATEMENTS)
+
+def error(message: str):
+    print(f"ERROR: {message}", file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+
+def convert_bool(variable_name: str, value: str) -> bool:
+    value = value.lower()
+    if value in ("true", "1", "yes", "on"):
+        return True
+    if value in ("false", "0", "no", "off", ""):
+        return False
+
+    error(f"Environment variable '{variable_name}' must be boolean (`true`, `1`, `yes`, `false`, `0` or `no`), `{value}` given")
+
+
+def tls_options() -> Optional[dict]:
+    if not convert_bool("MYSQL_USE_TLS", os.environ.get("MYSQL_USE_TLS", "false")):
+        return None
+    if convert_bool("MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY", os.environ.get("MYSQL_TLS_VERIFY", "true")):
+        # With a CA file, PyMySQL requires TLS and verifies both the certificate and the hostname
+        return {"ca": os.environ.get("MYSQL_TLS_CA") or DEFAULT_TLS_CA}
+    # Connection is still encrypted, but the server certificate is not verified
+    return {"verify_mode": False, "check_hostname": False}
+
+
+def connect(host: str, port: int, user: str, password: Optional[str], ssl: Optional[dict] = None) -> pymysql.connections.Connection:
+    connection = pymysql.connect(host=host, port=port, user=user, password=password, connect_timeout=1, client_flag=CLIENT.MULTI_STATEMENTS, ssl=ssl)
     connection.ping()
     return connection
 
 
-def wait_for_connection(host: str, port: int, user: str, password: Optional[str]) -> Connection:
-    logging.info(f"Connecting to MySQL server {host}:{port}")
+def wait_for_connection(host: str, port: int, user: str, password: Optional[str], ssl: Optional[dict] = None) -> Connection:
+    tls_info = ""
+    if ssl:
+        tls_info = " using TLS" if "ca" in ssl else " using TLS without certificate verification"
+    logging.info(f"Connecting to MySQL server {host}:{port}{tls_info}")
     last_exception = None
     for i in range(1, 10):
         try:
-            return connect(host, port, user, password)
+            return connect(host, port, user, password, ssl)
         except Exception as e:
             last_exception = e            
             logging.info("Waiting for database connection...")            
@@ -60,7 +90,7 @@ def main():
     port = os.environ.get("MYSQL_PORT")
     port = 3306 if port is None else int(port)
 
-    connection = wait_for_connection(args.host, port, args.user, password)
+    connection = wait_for_connection(args.host, port, args.user, password, tls_options())
 
     if is_schema_created(connection, args.database):
         logging.info("Database schema is already created.")