diff --git a/pkg/authenticator/basicauth/basicauth.go b/pkg/authenticator/basicauth/basicauth.go
index 7b8894a915..80812d3201 100644
--- a/pkg/authenticator/basicauth/basicauth.go
+++ b/pkg/authenticator/basicauth/basicauth.go
@@ -20,16 +20,17 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"net/http"
 
+	localAuthenticator "github.com/rancher/k3s/pkg/authenticator"
 	"k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/authentication/authenticator"
 )
 
 // Authenticator authenticates requests using basic auth
 type Authenticator struct {
-	auth authenticator.Password
+	auth localAuthenticator.Password
 }
 
 // New returns a request authenticator that validates credentials using the provided password authenticator
-func New(auth authenticator.Password) *Authenticator {
+func New(auth localAuthenticator.Password) *Authenticator {
 	return &Authenticator{auth}
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/authenticator/interfaces.go b/pkg/authenticator/interfaces.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6cffe6df95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/authenticator/interfaces.go
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2014 The Kubernetes Authors.
+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 authenticator
+
+import (
+	"context"
+
+	"k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/authentication/authenticator"
+)
+
+// Password checks a username and password against a backing authentication
+// store and returns a Response or an error if the password could not be
+// checked.
+type Password interface {
+	AuthenticatePassword(ctx context.Context, user, password string) (*authenticator.Response, bool, error)
+}