diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 844ba38445..f8555f97af 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -516,6 +516,8 @@ Release 0.23.0 - Unreleased
 
   BUG FIXES
 
+    HADOOP-7740. Fixed security audit logger configuration. (Arpit Gupta via Eric Yang)
+
     HADOOP-7630. hadoop-metrics2.properties should have a property *.period 
     set to a default value for metrics. (Eric Yang via mattf)
 
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop
index f3cfed346b..a3bed69247 100755
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop
@@ -103,6 +103,9 @@ case $COMMAND in
     fi
     shift
     
+    #make sure security appender is turned off
+    HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,NullAppender}"
+
     if $cygwin; then
       CLASSPATH=`cygpath -p -w "$CLASSPATH"`
     fi
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh
index 4cd10a3250..5f248fdf53 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh
@@ -217,7 +217,6 @@ HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.log.file=$HADOOP_LOGFILE"
 HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.home.dir=$HADOOP_PREFIX"
 HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.id.str=$HADOOP_IDENT_STRING"
 HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.root.logger=${HADOOP_ROOT_LOGGER:-INFO,console}"
-HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,console}"
 if [ "x$JAVA_LIBRARY_PATH" != "x" ]; then
   HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Djava.library.path=$JAVA_LIBRARY_PATH"
 fi  
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
index c981877dd3..2d52607b77 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/hadoop-env.sh
@@ -44,12 +44,12 @@ done
 export HADOOP_OPTS="-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true $HADOOP_CLIENT_OPTS"
 
 # Command specific options appended to HADOOP_OPTS when specified
-export HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS="-Dsecurity.audit.logger=INFO,DRFAS -Dhdfs.audit.logger=INFO,DRFAAUDIT $HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS"
-HADOOP_JOBTRACKER_OPTS="-Dsecurity.audit.logger=INFO,DRFAS -Dmapred.audit.logger=INFO,MRAUDIT -Dmapred.jobsummary.logger=INFO,JSA $HADOOP_JOBTRACKER_OPTS"
-HADOOP_TASKTRACKER_OPTS="-Dsecurity.audit.logger=ERROR,console -Dmapred.audit.logger=ERROR,console $HADOOP_TASKTRACKER_OPTS"
-HADOOP_DATANODE_OPTS="-Dsecurity.audit.logger=ERROR,DRFAS $HADOOP_DATANODE_OPTS"
+export HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=INFO,DRFAS -Dhdfs.audit.logger=INFO,DRFAAUDIT $HADOOP_NAMENODE_OPTS"
+HADOOP_JOBTRACKER_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=INFO,DRFAS -Dmapred.audit.logger=INFO,MRAUDIT -Dmapred.jobsummary.logger=INFO,JSA $HADOOP_JOBTRACKER_OPTS"
+HADOOP_TASKTRACKER_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=ERROR,console -Dmapred.audit.logger=ERROR,console $HADOOP_TASKTRACKER_OPTS"
+HADOOP_DATANODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=ERROR,DRFAS $HADOOP_DATANODE_OPTS"
 
-export HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS="-Dsecurity.audit.logger=INFO,DRFAS -Dhdfs.audit.logger=INFO,DRFAAUDIT $HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS"
+export HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS="-Dhadoop.security.logger=INFO,DRFAS -Dhdfs.audit.logger=INFO,DRFAAUDIT $HADOOP_SECONDARYNAMENODE_OPTS"
 
 # The following applies to multiple commands (fs, dfs, fsck, distcp etc)
 export HADOOP_CLIENT_OPTS="-Xmx128m $HADOOP_CLIENT_OPTS"
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/log4j.properties b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/log4j.properties
index 9ab56e499b..43da1b49be 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/log4j.properties
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/packages/templates/conf/log4j.properties
@@ -81,7 +81,8 @@ log4j.appender.TLA.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ISO8601} %p %c: %m%n
 #
 #Security appender
 #
-security.audit.logger=INFO,console
+hadoop.security.logger=INFO,console
+log4j.category.SecurityLogger=${hadoop.security.logger}
 hadoop.security.log.file=SecurityAuth.audit
 log4j.appender.DRFAS=org.apache.log4j.DailyRollingFileAppender 
 log4j.appender.DRFAS.File=${hadoop.log.dir}/${hadoop.security.log.file}
@@ -89,9 +90,6 @@ log4j.appender.DRFAS.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
 log4j.appender.DRFAS.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{ISO8601} %p %c: %m%n
 log4j.appender.DRFAS.DatePattern=.yyyy-MM-dd
 
-#new logger
-# Define some default values that can be overridden by system properties
-hadoop.security.logger=INFO,console
 
 #
 # hdfs audit logging
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
index ece940bdd9..d9b8f61abc 100755
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/bin/hdfs
@@ -110,6 +110,13 @@ if $cygwin; then
 fi
 export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH
 
+#turn security logger on the namenode
+if [ $COMMAND = "namenode" ]; then
+  HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,DRFAS}"
+else
+  HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,NullAppender}"
+fi
+
 # Check to see if we should start a secure datanode
 if [ "$starting_secure_dn" = "true" ]; then
   if [ "$HADOOP_PID_DIR" = "" ]; then
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/bin/mapred b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/bin/mapred
index ba7298021f..e5e9efb413 100755
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/bin/mapred
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/bin/mapred
@@ -115,5 +115,12 @@ if [ "$COMMAND" = "classpath" ] ; then
   exit
 fi
 
+#turn security logger on the jobtracker
+if [ $COMMAND = "jobtracker" ]; then
+  HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,DRFAS}"
+else
+  HADOOP_OPTS="$HADOOP_OPTS -Dhadoop.security.logger=${HADOOP_SECURITY_LOGGER:-INFO,NullAppender}"
+fi
+
 export CLASSPATH
 exec "$JAVA" $JAVA_HEAP_MAX $HADOOP_OPTS $CLASS "$@"