diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-auth/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authentication/server/AuthenticationFilter.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-auth/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authentication/server/AuthenticationFilter.java
index 0a9b8b5b7c3..5262fdc778e 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-auth/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authentication/server/AuthenticationFilter.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-auth/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/authentication/server/AuthenticationFilter.java
@@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ public class AuthenticationFilter implements Filter {
       for (Cookie cookie : cookies) {
         if (cookie.getName().equals(AuthenticatedURL.AUTH_COOKIE)) {
           tokenStr = cookie.getValue();
+          if (tokenStr.isEmpty()) {
+            throw new AuthenticationException("Unauthorized access");
+          }
           try {
             tokenStr = signer.verifyAndExtract(tokenStr);
           } catch (SignerException ex) {