diff --git a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/LoadTestTool.java b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/LoadTestTool.java
index ad4f947543f..58dd321bd57 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/LoadTestTool.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/util/LoadTestTool.java
@@ -917,7 +917,7 @@ public class LoadTestTool extends AbstractHBaseTool {
 
   private void addAuthInfoToConf(Properties authConfig, Configuration conf, String owner,
       String userList) throws IOException {
-    List<String> users = Arrays.asList(userList.split(","));
+    List<String> users = new ArrayList(Arrays.asList(userList.split(",")));
     users.add(owner);
     for (String user : users) {
       String keyTabFileConfKey = "hbase." + user + ".keytab.file";