diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index c04bfd0693..6ea2484279 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -765,6 +765,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-12384. Add "-direct" flag option for fs copy so that user can choose
     not to create "._COPYING_" file (J.Andreina via vinayakumarb)
 
+    HADOOP-12324. Better exception reporting in SaslPlainServer.
+    (Mike Yoder via stevel)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-11785. Reduce the number of listStatus operation in distcp
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SaslPlainServer.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SaslPlainServer.java
index 7c74f4ad0b..270b579324 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SaslPlainServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/SaslPlainServer.java
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ public byte[] evaluateResponse(byte[] response) throws SaslException {
         authz = ac.getAuthorizedID();
       }
     } catch (Exception e) {
-      throw new SaslException("PLAIN auth failed: " + e.getMessage(), e);
+      throw new SaslException("PLAIN auth failed: " + e.toString(), e);
     } finally {
       completed = true;
     }