diff --git a/fs/smb/client/connect.c b/fs/smb/client/connect.c
index bcd7f1ae99ba..b6e98eb31673 100644
--- a/fs/smb/client/connect.c
+++ b/fs/smb/client/connect.c
@@ -4189,14 +4189,25 @@ cifs_setup_session(const unsigned int xid, struct cifs_ses *ses,
 	return rc;
 }
 
-static int
-cifs_set_vol_auth(struct smb3_fs_context *ctx, struct cifs_ses *ses)
+static int set_fs_context_auth(struct smb3_fs_context *ctx,
+			       struct cifs_ses *ses)
 {
 	ctx->sectype = ses->sectype;
 
-	/* krb5 is special, since we don't need username or pw */
-	if (ctx->sectype == Kerberos)
+	/*
+	 * krb5 is special as we might need to pass username (passwordless) down
+	 * to cifs.upcall(8) for keytab.
+	 */
+	if (ctx->sectype == Kerberos) {
+		if (ses->user_name && ses->user_name[0]) {
+			ctx->username = kstrndup(ses->user_name,
+						 CIFS_MAX_USERNAME_LEN,
+						 GFP_KERNEL);
+			if (!ctx->username)
+				return -ENOMEM;
+		}
 		return 0;
+	}
 
 	return cifs_set_cifscreds(ctx, ses);
 }
@@ -4236,7 +4247,7 @@ cifs_construct_tcon(struct cifs_sb_info *cifs_sb, kuid_t fsuid)
 	ctx->dfs_root_ses = master_tcon->ses->dfs_root_ses;
 	ctx->unicode = master_tcon->ses->unicode;
 
-	rc = cifs_set_vol_auth(ctx, master_tcon->ses);
+	rc = set_fs_context_auth(ctx, master_tcon->ses);
 	if (rc) {
 		tcon = ERR_PTR(rc);
 		goto out;