Redis: NOAUTH Authentication required

The error “Redis: NOAUTH Authentication required” means the Redis server requires a password but none was provided. Any command except AUTH, HELLO, and QUIT is rejected until authentication succeeds.

What It Means

Redis supports password-based authentication via the requirepass configuration directive. When a requirepass is set, every client must call AUTH <password> immediately after connecting before Redis accepts any other command.

Why It Happens

• The server has requirepass set but your client is not sending the AUTH command.
• The password was changed on the server but your client still uses the old one.
• The application code does not handle authentication in its connection setup.
• The redis-cli was invoked without the -a flag.
• A connection pool reused an authenticated connection after the server was restarted with a new password.
• Redis 6+ ACL is enabled and the default user has no permissions.

How to Fix It

1. Authenticate via redis-cli

redis-cli -a YourPassword

2. Check the requirepass setting

redis-cli CONFIG GET requirepass

3. Set or change the password

redis-cli CONFIG SET requirepass YourNewPassword

To make the change permanent, edit /etc/redis/redis.conf:

requirepass YourNewPassword

4. Authenticate after connecting

redis-cli
AUTH YourPassword

5. Pass the password via environment variable

REDISCLI_AUTH=YourPassword redis-cli

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