diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 2e3caa1274e..2e503f8c70f 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -410,6 +410,9 @@ Release 2.5.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-10531. hadoop-config.sh - bug in --hosts argument.
     (Sebastien Barrier via wang)
 
+    HADOOP-10539. Provide backward compatibility for ProxyUsers.authorize()
+    call. (Benoy Antony via cnauroth)
+
 Release 2.4.1 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authorize/ProxyUsers.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authorize/ProxyUsers.java
index e919d4e81f5..7da5014e330 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authorize/ProxyUsers.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authorize/ProxyUsers.java
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
 
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 
-@InterfaceAudience.Private
+@InterfaceAudience.LimitedPrivate({"HDFS", "MapReduce", "HBase", "Hive"})
 public class ProxyUsers {
 
   private static final String CONF_HOSTS = ".hosts";
@@ -193,6 +193,20 @@ public class ProxyUsers {
           + superUser.getUserName() + " from IP " + remoteAddress);
     }
   }
+  
+  /**
+   * This function is kept to provide backward compatibility.
+   * @param user
+   * @param remoteAddress
+   * @param conf
+   * @throws AuthorizationException
+   * @deprecated use {@link #authorize(UserGroupInformation, String) instead. 
+   */
+  @Deprecated
+  public static synchronized void authorize(UserGroupInformation user, 
+      String remoteAddress, Configuration conf) throws AuthorizationException {
+    authorize(user,remoteAddress);
+  }
 
   /**
    * Return true if the configuration specifies the special configuration value