How do I turn off the mysql password validation?

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][1] 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. [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34913583/2341218