diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index ca7964ca219..db0526ce709 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -208,6 +208,9 @@ Release 2.5.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-10686. Writables are not always configured. 
     (Abraham Elmahrek via kasha)
 
+    HADOOP-10678. SecurityUtil has unnecessary synchronization on collection
+    used for only tests. (Benoy Antony via cnauroth)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HADOOP-10514 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
     HADOOP-10520. Extended attributes definition and FileSystem APIs for
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SecurityUtil.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SecurityUtil.java
index 623c3ebbdfb..b71fbda6301 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SecurityUtil.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SecurityUtil.java
@@ -289,12 +289,10 @@ public class SecurityUtil {
    */
   public static KerberosInfo 
   getKerberosInfo(Class<?> protocol, Configuration conf) {
-    synchronized (testProviders) {
-      for(SecurityInfo provider: testProviders) {
-        KerberosInfo result = provider.getKerberosInfo(protocol, conf);
-        if (result != null) {
-          return result;
-        }
+    for(SecurityInfo provider: testProviders) {
+      KerberosInfo result = provider.getKerberosInfo(protocol, conf);
+      if (result != null) {
+        return result;
       }
     }
     
@@ -317,13 +315,11 @@ public class SecurityUtil {
    * @return the TokenInfo or null if it has no KerberosInfo defined
    */
   public static TokenInfo getTokenInfo(Class<?> protocol, Configuration conf) {
-    synchronized (testProviders) {
-      for(SecurityInfo provider: testProviders) {
-        TokenInfo result = provider.getTokenInfo(protocol, conf);
-        if (result != null) {
-          return result;
-        }      
-      }
+    for(SecurityInfo provider: testProviders) {
+      TokenInfo result = provider.getTokenInfo(protocol, conf);
+      if (result != null) {
+        return result;
+      }      
     }
     
     synchronized (securityInfoProviders) {