diff --git a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkInit.java b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkInit.java
index 71762c7..c62bbf5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkInit.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkInit.java
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
     injector.injectMembers(this);
 
     try {
-      try (CuratorFramework curator = new ZookeeperConfig(config).buildCurator()) {
+      try (CuratorFramework curator = new ZookeeperConfig(config).startCurator()) {
         zkMigrations.migrate(injector, curator, versionManager.read());
       }
     } catch (StorageException e) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkValidationModule.java b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkValidationModule.java
index cf97adf..f847a95 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkValidationModule.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZkValidationModule.java
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
     DynamicItem.bind(binder(), GlobalRefDatabase.class)
         .to(ZkSharedRefDatabase.class)
         .in(Scopes.SINGLETON);
-    bind(CuratorFramework.class).toInstance(cfg.buildCurator());
+    bind(CuratorFramework.class).toInstance(cfg.startCurator());
     bind(ZkConnectionConfig.class)
         .toInstance(
             new ZkConnectionConfig(cfg.buildCasRetryPolicy(), cfg.getZkInterProcessLockTimeOut()));
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperConfig.java b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperConfig.java
index b6abb40..2f367c9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperConfig.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperConfig.java
@@ -191,7 +191,27 @@
         connectionString);
   }
 
-  public CuratorFramework buildCurator() {
+  protected CuratorFrameworkFactory.Builder parseCuratorConfig() {
+    CuratorFrameworkFactory.Builder builder =
+        CuratorFrameworkFactory.builder()
+            .connectString(connectionString)
+            .sessionTimeoutMs(sessionTimeoutMs)
+            .connectionTimeoutMs(connectionTimeoutMs)
+            .retryPolicy(
+                new BoundedExponentialBackoffRetry(baseSleepTimeMs, maxSleepTimeMs, maxRetries))
+            .namespace(root);
+    if (zkUsername.isPresent() != zkPassword.isPresent()) {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+          "Only one between password or username for Zookeeper was set, please set both to successfully authenticate");
+    } else {
+      zkUsername
+          .flatMap(usr -> zkPassword.map(pwd -> usr + ":" + pwd))
+          .ifPresent(auth -> configureAuth(builder, auth));
+    }
+    return builder;
+  }
+
+  public CuratorFramework startCurator() {
     if (isSSLEnabled) {
 
       System.setProperty(
@@ -209,23 +229,7 @@
     }
 
     if (build == null) {
-      CuratorFrameworkFactory.Builder builder =
-          CuratorFrameworkFactory.builder()
-              .connectString(connectionString)
-              .sessionTimeoutMs(sessionTimeoutMs)
-              .connectionTimeoutMs(connectionTimeoutMs)
-              .retryPolicy(
-                  new BoundedExponentialBackoffRetry(baseSleepTimeMs, maxSleepTimeMs, maxRetries))
-              .namespace(root);
-      if (zkUsername.isPresent() != zkPassword.isPresent()) {
-        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
-            "Only one between password or username for Zookeeper was set, please set both to successfully authenticate");
-      } else {
-        zkUsername
-            .flatMap(usr -> zkPassword.map(pwd -> usr + ":" + pwd))
-            .ifPresent(auth -> configureAuth(builder, auth));
-      }
-      this.build = builder.build();
+      this.build = parseCuratorConfig().build();
       this.build.start();
     }
     return this.build;
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperACLParsingTest.java b/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperACLParsingTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b43c2c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperACLParsingTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+// Copyright (C) 2019 The Android Open Source Project
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+package com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.validation.dfsrefdb.zookeeper;
+
+import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;
+import static com.google.gerrit.testing.GerritJUnit.assertThrows;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+
+import com.google.gerrit.server.config.PluginConfigFactory;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import org.apache.curator.framework.CuratorFrameworkFactory;
+import org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Config;
+import org.junit.Rule;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.rules.TestName;
+
+public class ZookeeperACLParsingTest {
+  @Rule public TestName nameRule = new TestName();
+
+  String PLUGIN_NAME = "zookeeper";
+
+  @Test
+  public void shouldNotSetUpAuthIfNotProvided() {
+
+    PluginConfigFactory cfgFactory = mock(PluginConfigFactory.class);
+    when(cfgFactory.getGlobalPluginConfig(PLUGIN_NAME)).thenReturn(new Config());
+
+    ZookeeperConfig configuration = new ZookeeperConfig(cfgFactory, PLUGIN_NAME);
+
+    CuratorFrameworkFactory.Builder builder = configuration.parseCuratorConfig();
+
+    assertThat(builder.getAuthInfos()).isNull();
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void shouldCorrectlyParseAuthConfigIfProvided() {
+    Config pluginConfig = new Config();
+    pluginConfig.setString(
+        "ref-database", ZookeeperConfig.SUBSECTION, ZookeeperConfig.KEY_USERNAME, "globalrefdb");
+    pluginConfig.setString(
+        "ref-database",
+        ZookeeperConfig.SUBSECTION,
+        ZookeeperConfig.KEY_PASSWORD,
+        "globalrefdb-secret");
+
+    PluginConfigFactory cfgFactory = mock(PluginConfigFactory.class);
+    when(cfgFactory.getGlobalPluginConfig(PLUGIN_NAME)).thenReturn(pluginConfig);
+
+    ZookeeperConfig configuration = new ZookeeperConfig(cfgFactory, PLUGIN_NAME);
+
+    CuratorFrameworkFactory.Builder builder = configuration.parseCuratorConfig();
+
+    String authInfo = new String(builder.getAuthInfos().get(0).getAuth(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+
+    assertThat(authInfo).isEqualTo("globalrefdb:globalrefdb-secret");
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void shouldNotParseAuthConfigIfUsernameIsNotProvided() {
+    Config pluginConfig = new Config();
+    pluginConfig.setString(
+        "ref-database", ZookeeperConfig.SUBSECTION, ZookeeperConfig.KEY_PASSWORD, "pwd");
+
+    PluginConfigFactory cfgFactory = mock(PluginConfigFactory.class);
+    when(cfgFactory.getGlobalPluginConfig(PLUGIN_NAME)).thenReturn(pluginConfig);
+
+    ZookeeperConfig configuration = new ZookeeperConfig(cfgFactory, PLUGIN_NAME);
+
+    Exception e =
+        assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> configuration.parseCuratorConfig());
+    assertTrue(
+        e.getMessage()
+            .contains(
+                "Only one between password or username for Zookeeper was set, please set both to successfully authenticate"));
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void shouldNotParseAuthConfigIfPasswordIsNotProvided() {
+    Config pluginConfig = new Config();
+    pluginConfig.setString(
+        "ref-database", ZookeeperConfig.SUBSECTION, ZookeeperConfig.KEY_USERNAME, "usr");
+
+    PluginConfigFactory cfgFactory = mock(PluginConfigFactory.class);
+    when(cfgFactory.getGlobalPluginConfig(PLUGIN_NAME)).thenReturn(pluginConfig);
+
+    ZookeeperConfig configuration = new ZookeeperConfig(cfgFactory, PLUGIN_NAME);
+
+    Exception e =
+        assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class, () -> configuration.parseCuratorConfig());
+    assertTrue(
+        e.getMessage()
+            .contains(
+                "Only one between password or username for Zookeeper was set, please set both to successfully authenticate"));
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperTestContainerSupport.java b/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperTestContainerSupport.java
index 366a83f..b2ac599 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperTestContainerSupport.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/validation/dfsrefdb/zookeeper/ZookeeperTestContainerSupport.java
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
     when(cfgFactory.getGlobalPluginConfig("zookeeper")).thenReturn(sharedRefDbConfig);
     configuration = new ZookeeperConfig(cfgFactory, "zookeeper");
 
-    this.curator = configuration.buildCurator();
+    this.curator = configuration.startCurator();
   }
 
   public void cleanup() {