diff --git a/scenarios/1backend/mysql/schema.sql b/scenarios/1backend/mysql/schema.sql
index 19785d9af..419a12708 100644
--- a/scenarios/1backend/mysql/schema.sql
+++ b/scenarios/1backend/mysql/schema.sql
@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
 DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS test;
-
 CREATE DATABASE test;
 
+CREATE USER john@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'doe';
+CREATE USER danny@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'white'; 
+
+GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON test.* TO 'john'@'%';
+GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON test.* TO 'danny'@'%';
+FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
+
 USE test;
 
 CREATE TABLE strings(value LONGTEXT);
diff --git a/scenarios/base/proxysql/proxysql.cnf b/scenarios/base/proxysql/proxysql.cnf
index b50345d01..75ab20289 100644
--- a/scenarios/base/proxysql/proxysql.cnf
+++ b/scenarios/base/proxysql/proxysql.cnf
@@ -14,5 +14,11 @@ mysql_users =
 		username = "root"
 		password = "root"
 		default_hostgroup = 0
+	},
+
+	{
+		username = "john"
+		password = "doe"
+		default_hostgroup = 0
 	}
 )
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/authentication_test.py b/test/authentication_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..53394fbf7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/authentication_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+import MySQLdb
+from MySQLdb import OperationalError
+from nose.tools import raises
+
+from proxysql_base_test import ProxySQLBaseTest
+
+class AuthenticationTest(ProxySQLBaseTest):
+
+	DOCKER_COMPOSE_FILE = "./scenarios/1backend"
+
+	def test_existing_user_with_correct_password_works(self):
+		version1 = self.run_query_mysql(
+								"SELECT @@version_comment LIMIT 1", "test",
+								return_result=True,
+								username="john", password="doe")
+
+		version2 = self.run_query_proxysql(
+								"SELECT @@version_comment LIMIT 1", "test",
+								return_result=True,
+								username="john", password="doe")
+
+		self.assertEqual(version1, version2)
+
+	@raises(OperationalError)
+	def test_existing_user_with_correct_password_but_not_registerd_within_proxysql_does_not_work(self):
+		version1 = self.run_query_proxysql(
+								"SELECT @@version_comment LIMIT 1", "test",
+								return_result=True,
+								username="danny", password="white")
+
+	@raises(OperationalError)
+	def test_existing_user_with_incorrect_password_does_not_work(self):
+		version = self.run_query_proxysql(
+								"SELECT @@version_comment LIMIT 1", "test",
+								return_result=True,
+								username="john", password="doe2")
+
+	@raises(OperationalError)
+	def test_inexisting_user_with_random_password_does_not_work(self):
+		version = self.run_query_proxysql(
+								"SELECT @@version_comment LIMIT 1", "test",
+								return_result=True,
+								username="johnny", password="randomdoe")
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/proxysql_base_test.py b/test/proxysql_base_test.py
index 4332d3a72..08a751533 100644
--- a/test/proxysql_base_test.py
+++ b/test/proxysql_base_test.py
@@ -194,13 +194,17 @@ class ProxySQLBaseTest(TestCase):
 	def tearDownClass(cls):
 		cls._shutdown_docker_services()
 	
-	def run_query_proxysql(self, query, db, return_result=True):
+	def run_query_proxysql(self, query, db, return_result=True,
+							username=None, password=None, port=None):
 		"""Run a query against the ProxySQL proxy and optionally return its
 		results as a set of rows."""
+		username = username or ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_USERNAME
+		password = password or ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_PASSWORD
+		port = port or ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_PORT
 		proxy_connection = MySQLdb.connect("127.0.0.1",
-											ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_USERNAME,
-											ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_PASSWORD,
-											port=ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_PORT,
+											username,
+											password,
+											port=port,
 											db=db)
 		cursor = proxy_connection.cursor()
 		cursor.execute(query)
@@ -211,7 +215,8 @@ class ProxySQLBaseTest(TestCase):
 		if return_result:
 			return rows
 
-	def run_query_mysql(self, query, db, return_result=True, hostgroup=0):
+	def run_query_mysql(self, query, db, return_result=True, hostgroup=0,
+					    username=None, password=None):
 		"""Run a query against the MySQL backend and optionally return its
 		results as a set of rows.
 
@@ -250,14 +255,11 @@ class ProxySQLBaseTest(TestCase):
 			if exposed_port['PrivatePort'] == 3306:
 				mysql_port = exposed_port['PublicPort']
 
+		username = username or ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_USERNAME
+		password = password or ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_PASSWORD
 		mysql_connection = MySQLdb.connect("127.0.0.1",
-											# Warning: this assumes that ProxySQL
-											# and all the backends have the same
-											# credentials.
-											# TODO(andrei): revisit this assumption
-											# in authentication tests.
-											ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_USERNAME,
-											ProxySQLBaseTest.PROXYSQL_RW_PASSWORD,
+											username,
+											password,
 											port=mysql_port,
 											db=db)
 		cursor = mysql_connection.cursor()