diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 69ebc71d1c66f74c083889ed1039875b8376190d..e8ff6dd5056ea6f9d1e99f72e0d9c2470c4373b4 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -80,14 +80,14 @@ lint-js:
 tests:
   stage: quality
   services:
-    - mariadb:10.2
+    - mariadb:10.11
   variables:
     MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "R00Tp4ssW0RD"
     MYSQL_DATABASE: "test"
     MYSQL_USER: "castopod"
     MYSQL_PASSWORD: "castopod"
   script:
-    - echo "SHOW DATABASES;" | mysql --user=root --password="$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD" --host=mariadb "$MYSQL_DATABASE"
+    - echo "SHOW DATABASES;" | mariadb --user=root --password="$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD" --host=mariadb "$MYSQL_DATABASE" --skip_ssl
 
     # run phpunit without code coverage
     # TODO: add code coverage