diff --git a/src/couch/src/couch_httpd_auth.erl b/src/couch/src/couch_httpd_auth.erl
index cc02a1e..c308549 100644
--- a/src/couch/src/couch_httpd_auth.erl
+++ b/src/couch/src/couch_httpd_auth.erl
@@ -459,7 +459,13 @@
                     Pairs
                 );
             _ ->
-                []
+                throw(
+                    {bad_ctype, <<
+                        "Content-Type must be "
+                        "'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' or "
+                        "'application/json'"
+                    >>}
+                )
         end,
     UserName = ?l2b(extract_username(Form)),
     Password = ?l2b(couch_util:get_value("password", Form, "")),
diff --git a/src/couch/test/eunit/couchdb_auth_tests.erl b/src/couch/test/eunit/couchdb_auth_tests.erl
index dfb22dc..bc5caab 100644
--- a/src/couch/test/eunit/couchdb_auth_tests.erl
+++ b/src/couch/test/eunit/couchdb_auth_tests.erl
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
     Tests = [
         fun should_return_username_on_post_to_session/2,
         fun should_not_return_authenticated_field/2,
+        fun should_return_bad_content_type_appropriately/2,
         fun should_return_list_of_handlers/2
     ],
     RequireValidUserTests = [
@@ -85,6 +86,20 @@
         end
     ).
 
+should_return_bad_content_type_appropriately(_PortType, Url) ->
+    ?_assertEqual(
+        <<"bad_content_type">>,
+        begin
+            {ok, 415, _, Body} = test_request:post(
+                Url,
+                [{"Content-Type", ""}],
+                []
+            ),
+            #{<<"error">> := Error} = jiffy:decode(Body, [return_maps]),
+            Error
+        end
+    ).
+
 should_not_return_authenticated_field(_PortType, Url) ->
     ?_assertThrow(
         {not_found, _},