diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index f39834f0e3a..e1c3993e596 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,9 @@ Trunk (unreleased changes)
     HDFS-46.   Change default namespace quota of root directory from
     Integer.MAX_VALUE to Long.MAX_VALUE.  (Uma Maheswara Rao G via szetszwo)
 
+    HDFS-2366. Initialize WebHdfsFileSystem.ugi in object construction.
+    (szetszwo)
+
 Release 0.23.0 - Unreleased
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/WebHdfsFileSystem.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/WebHdfsFileSystem.java
index b2b1fac75e7..35c325281b5 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/WebHdfsFileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/WebHdfsFileSystem.java
@@ -91,17 +91,24 @@ public class WebHdfsFileSystem extends HftpFileSystem {
 
   private static final KerberosUgiAuthenticator AUTH = new KerberosUgiAuthenticator();
 
-  private UserGroupInformation ugi;
+  private final UserGroupInformation ugi;
   private final AuthenticatedURL.Token authToken = new AuthenticatedURL.Token();
   protected Path workingDir;
 
+  {
+    try {
+      ugi = UserGroupInformation.getCurrentUser();
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      throw new RuntimeException(e);
+    }
+  }
+
   @Override
   public synchronized void initialize(URI uri, Configuration conf
       ) throws IOException {
     super.initialize(uri, conf);
     setConf(conf);
 
-    ugi = UserGroupInformation.getCurrentUser();
     this.workingDir = getHomeDirectory();
   }