diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 65223b00cdf..5256a650f16 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -176,6 +176,9 @@ Release 2.0.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-8353. hadoop-daemon.sh and yarn-daemon.sh can be misleading on stop.
     (Roman Shaposhnik via atm)
 
+    HADOOP-8224. Don't hardcode hdfs.audit.logger in the scripts.
+    (Tomohiko Kinebuchi via eli)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-daemon.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-daemon.sh
index 16e711429ce..80393a59034 100755
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-daemon.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-daemon.sh
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ fi
 export HADOOP_LOGFILE=hadoop-$HADOOP_IDENT_STRING-$command-$HOSTNAME.log
 export HADOOP_ROOT_LOGGER=${HADOOP_ROOT_LOGGER:-"INFO,RFA"}
 export HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-"INFO,RFAS"}
+export HDFS_AUDIT_LOGGER=${HDFS_AUDIT_LOGGER:-"INFO,NullAppender"}
 log=$HADOOP_LOG_DIR/hadoop-$HADOOP_IDENT_STRING-$command-$HOSTNAME.out
 pid=$HADOOP_PID_DIR/hadoop-$HADOOP_IDENT_STRING-$command.pid
 HADOOP_STOP_TIMEOUT=${HADOOP_STOP_TIMEOUT:-5}
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
index abb77bd28aa..c81d4a9eec3 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
@@ -45,10 +45,10 @@ done
 export HADOOP_OPTS="-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true $HADOOP_CLIENT_OPTS"
 
 # Command specific options appended to HADOOP_OPTS when specified
-export HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,RFAS} -Dhdfs.audit.logger=INFO,NullAppender $HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS"
+export HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,RFAS} -Dhdfs.audit.logger=${HDFS_AUDIT_LOGGER:-INFO,NullAppender} $HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS"
 export HADOOP_DATANODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=ERROR,RFAS $HADOOP_DATANODE_OPTS"
 
-export HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,RFAS} -Dhdfs.audit.logger=INFO,NullAppender $HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS"
+export HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,RFAS} -Dhdfs.audit.logger=${HDFS_AUDIT_LOGGER:-INFO,NullAppender} $HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS"
 
 # The following applies to multiple commands (fs, dfs, fsck, distcp etc)
 export HADOOP_CLIENT_OPTS="-Xmx128m $HADOOP_CLIENT_OPTS"