diff --git a/geowebcache/core/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/layer/wms/WMSHttpHelper.java b/geowebcache/core/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/layer/wms/WMSHttpHelper.java
index 782c9bad2..3c92a6681 100644
--- a/geowebcache/core/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/layer/wms/WMSHttpHelper.java
+++ b/geowebcache/core/src/main/java/org/geowebcache/layer/wms/WMSHttpHelper.java
@@ -30,11 +30,14 @@
 import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
 import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
 import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
+import org.apache.http.auth.AuthenticationException;
+import org.apache.http.auth.UsernamePasswordCredentials;
 import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpRequestBase;
 import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
+import org.apache.http.impl.auth.BasicScheme;
 import org.apache.http.message.BasicNameValuePair;
 import org.geotools.util.logging.Logging;
 import org.geowebcache.GeoWebCacheException;
@@ -339,6 +342,16 @@ public HttpResponse executeRequest(
             method = new HttpGet(urlString);
         }
 
+        if (httpUsername != null) {
+            try {
+                UsernamePasswordCredentials creds =
+                        new UsernamePasswordCredentials(httpUsername, httpPassword);
+                method.addHeader(new BasicScheme().authenticate(creds, method, null));
+            } catch (AuthenticationException e) {
+                throw new AssertionError("BasicScheme threw: " + e.getMessage());
+            }
+        }
+
         // fire!
         if (log.isLoggable(Level.FINER)) {
             log.finer(method.toString());