diff --git a/mycli/config.py b/mycli/config.py
index 03fb502a..e0f2d1fc 100644
--- a/mycli/config.py
+++ b/mycli/config.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import io
 import shutil
 from copy import copy
 from io import BytesIO, TextIOWrapper
@@ -6,6 +7,7 @@
 from os.path import exists
 import struct
 import sys
+from typing import Union
 
 from configobj import ConfigObj, ConfigObjError
 from cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers import Cipher, algorithms, modes
@@ -59,23 +61,34 @@ def read_config_file(f, list_values=True):
     return config
 
 
-def get_included_configs(config_path) -> list:
+def get_included_configs(config_file: Union[str, io.TextIOWrapper]) -> list:
     """Get a list of configuration files that are included into config_path
-    with !includedir directive."""
-    if not os.path.exists(config_path):
+    with !includedir directive.
+
+    "Normal" configs should be passed as file paths. The only exception
+    is .mylogin which is decoded into a stream. However, it never
+    contains include directives and so will be ignored by this
+    function.
+
+    """
+    if not isinstance(config_file, str) or not os.path.isfile(config_file):
         return []
     included_configs = []
-    with open(config_path) as f:
-        include_directives = filter(
-            lambda s: s.startswith('!includedir'),
-            f
-        )
-        dirs = map(lambda s: s.strip().split()[-1], include_directives)
-        dirs = filter(os.path.isdir, dirs)
-        for dir in dirs:
-            for filename in os.listdir(dir):
-                if filename.endswith('.cnf'):
-                    included_configs.append(os.path.join(dir, filename))
+
+    try:
+        with open(config_file) as f:
+            include_directives = filter(
+                lambda s: s.startswith('!includedir'),
+                f
+            )
+            dirs = map(lambda s: s.strip().split()[-1], include_directives)
+            dirs = filter(os.path.isdir, dirs)
+            for dir in dirs:
+                for filename in os.listdir(dir):
+                    if filename.endswith('.cnf'):
+                        included_configs.append(os.path.join(dir, filename))
+    except (PermissionError, UnicodeDecodeError):
+        pass
     return included_configs
 
 
@@ -86,8 +99,12 @@ def read_config_files(files, list_values=True):
     _files = copy(files)
     while _files:
         _file = _files.pop(0)
-        _files = get_included_configs(_file) + _files
         _config = read_config_file(_file, list_values=list_values)
+
+        # expand includes only if we were able to parse config
+        # (otherwise we'll just encounter the same errors again)
+        if config is not None:
+            _files = get_included_configs(_file) + _files
         if bool(_config) is True:
             config.merge(_config)
             config.filename = _config.filename
diff --git a/mycli/main.py b/mycli/main.py
index 55afedd5..1fe2a848 100755
--- a/mycli/main.py
+++ b/mycli/main.py
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ def read_my_cnf_files(self, files, keys):
         """
         cnf = read_config_files(files, list_values=False)
 
-        sections = ['client']
+        sections = ['client', 'mysqld']
         if self.login_path and self.login_path != 'client':
             sections.append(self.login_path)