diff --git a/lib/base/connection.js b/lib/base/connection.js
index ea91f1813a..997bc177f1 100644
--- a/lib/base/connection.js
+++ b/lib/base/connection.js
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ class BaseConnection extends EventEmitter {
   constructor(opts) {
     super();
     this.config = opts.config;
+
+    if (typeof this.config.ssl === 'boolean' ) {
+      this.config.ssl = this.config.ssl === true ? {} : undefined;
+    }
+
     // TODO: fill defaults
     // if no params, connect to /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock ( /tmp/mysql.sock on OSX )
     // if host is given, connect to host:3306
diff --git a/typings/mysql/lib/Connection.d.ts b/typings/mysql/lib/Connection.d.ts
index dffc2a8ce2..b5db5aaae8 100644
--- a/typings/mysql/lib/Connection.d.ts
+++ b/typings/mysql/lib/Connection.d.ts
@@ -268,7 +268,7 @@ export interface ConnectionOptions {
   /**
    * object with ssl parameters or a string containing name of ssl profile
    */
-  ssl?: string | SslOptions;
+  ssl?: string | boolean | SslOptions;
 
   /**
    * Return each row as an array, not as an object.
diff --git a/website/docs/documentation/ssl.mdx b/website/docs/documentation/ssl.mdx
index 59f6b07fa9..ee685c8334 100644
--- a/website/docs/documentation/ssl.mdx
+++ b/website/docs/documentation/ssl.mdx
@@ -10,12 +10,12 @@ See full list of [SslOptions](https://github.com/sidorares/node-mysql2/blob/mast
 
 ## SSL Options
 
-To enable SSL without manually providing certificates and assuming they are already trusted by the host machine, you can specify an empty object, for example:
+To enable SSL without manually providing certificates and assuming they are already trusted by the host machine, you can specify `ssl: true` or `ssl: {}`, for example:
 
 ```ts
 const connection = await mysql.createConnection({
   host: 'localhost',
-  ssl: {},
+  ssl: true,
 });
 ```
 
diff --git a/website/docs/examples/connections/create-connection.mdx b/website/docs/examples/connections/create-connection.mdx
index 9f6a3a6f71..5ab4b0abd9 100644
--- a/website/docs/examples/connections/create-connection.mdx
+++ b/website/docs/examples/connections/create-connection.mdx
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ const mysql = require('mysql2');
 
 const connection = mysql.createConnection({
   // ...
-  ssl: {},
+  ssl: true,
 });
 
 connection.addListener('error', (err) => {