diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 015346c4173c5f..456401aa92d40f 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1742,7 +1742,8 @@ http.emptyAuth::
 	Attempt authentication without seeking a username or password.  This
 	can be used to attempt GSS-Negotiate authentication without specifying
 	a username in the URL, as libcurl normally requires a username for
-	authentication.
+	authentication.  Default is true, since if this fails, git will fall
+	back to asking the user for their username/password.
 
 http.delegation::
 	Control GSSAPI credential delegation. The delegation is disabled
diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 90a1c0f1131c4a..943e630ea6737a 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ static int curl_save_cookies;
 struct credential http_auth = CREDENTIAL_INIT;
 static int http_proactive_auth;
 static const char *user_agent;
-static int curl_empty_auth;
+static int curl_empty_auth = 1;
 
 enum http_follow_config http_follow_config = HTTP_FOLLOW_INITIAL;