diff --git a/config/alfresco/authentication-services-context.xml b/config/alfresco/authentication-services-context.xml
index 1d50de9eed..46ebf00c5c 100644
--- a/config/alfresco/authentication-services-context.xml
+++ b/config/alfresco/authentication-services-context.xml
@@ -149,6 +149,9 @@
 	<!-- authentication against the default authentication mechanism. -->
 
 	<bean id="passwordEncoder" class="org.alfresco.repo.security.authentication.MD4PasswordEncoderImpl" />
+	
+	<!--  No Op Password Encoder Does not encode a password - used to replace an obsolete encoder e.g. the MD4 one -->
+	<bean id="noOpPasswordEncoder" class="org.alfresco.repo.security.authentication.NoOpPasswordEncoderImpl" />
 
     <bean id="sha256PasswordEncoder" class="org.alfresco.repo.security.authentication.ShaPasswordEncoderImpl">
         <constructor-arg index="0"><value>256</value></constructor-arg>
diff --git a/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authentication/NoOpPasswordEncoderImpl.java b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authentication/NoOpPasswordEncoderImpl.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5816c33219
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/java/org/alfresco/repo/security/authentication/NoOpPasswordEncoderImpl.java
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2014-2014 Alfresco Software Limited.
+ *
+ * This file is part of Alfresco
+ *
+ * Alfresco is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * Alfresco is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ * along with Alfresco. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+package org.alfresco.repo.security.authentication;
+
+import net.sf.acegisecurity.providers.encoding.BaseDigestPasswordEncoder;
+
+
+/**
+ * <p>
+ * NoOp implementation of PasswordEncoder.
+ * </p>
+ * The No Op Password Encoder produces a blank hash.  And will not match any value of hash.  
+ * Used to replace an obsolete encoder like the MD4.
+ * </p>
+ */
+public class NoOpPasswordEncoderImpl extends BaseDigestPasswordEncoder implements MD4PasswordEncoder
+{
+    
+    public NoOpPasswordEncoderImpl()
+    {
+        super();
+        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
+    }
+
+    // ~ Methods
+    // ================================================================
+
+    public boolean isPasswordValid(String encPass, String rawPass, Object salt)
+    {
+       return false;
+    }
+
+    public String encodePassword(String rawPass, Object salt)
+    {
+        return "";
+    }
+
+    public byte[] decodeHash(String encodedHash)
+    {
+        return new byte[0];
+    }
+
+}