apache/pulsar · error · AuthenticationException

INVALID_AUTH_DATA

INVALID_AUTH_DATA

Error message

Unknown user or invalid password

What it means

Basic-auth authenticate: the supplied user id is unknown or the password does not match the configured credentials hash, so authentication is rejected with the generic unknown-user/invalid-password error.

Source

Thrown at pulsar-broker-common/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/authentication/AuthenticationProviderBasic.java:135

        return "basic";
    }

    @Override
    public void incrementFailureMetric(Enum<?> errorCode) {
        authenticationMetrics.recordFailure(errorCode);
    }

    @Override
    public String authenticate(AuthenticationDataSource authData) throws AuthenticationException {
        AuthParams authParams = new AuthParams(authData);
        String userId = authParams.getUserId();
        String password = authParams.getPassword();
        String msg = "Unknown user or invalid password";
        ErrorCode errorCode = ErrorCode.UNKNOWN;
        try {
            if (users.get(userId) == null) {
                errorCode = ErrorCode.INVALID_AUTH_DATA;
                throw new AuthenticationException(msg);
            }

            String encryptedPassword = users.get(userId);

            // For md5 algorithm
            if ((users.get(userId).startsWith("$apr1"))) {
                List<String> splitEncryptedPassword = Arrays.asList(encryptedPassword.split("\\$"));
                if (splitEncryptedPassword.size() != 4 || !encryptedPassword
                        .equals(Md5Crypt.apr1Crypt(password.getBytes(), splitEncryptedPassword.get(2)))) {
                    errorCode = ErrorCode.INVALID_TOKEN;
                    throw new AuthenticationException(msg);
                }
                // For crypt algorithm
            } else if (!encryptedPassword.equals(Crypt.crypt(password.getBytes(), encryptedPassword.substring(0, 2)))) {
                errorCode = ErrorCode.INVALID_TOKEN;
                throw new AuthenticationException(msg);
            }
        } catch (AuthenticationException exception) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 820761864e)

Solutions

1. Add the user to the basic auth config or use correct credentials
2. Check for whitespace/case mismatches in the username

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pulsar-broker-common/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/broker/authentication/AuthenticationProviderBasic.java:135 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/pulsar@820761864e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b683973af143817c. Report an issue: GitHub.