diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/authc/esnative/NativeUsersStore.java b/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/authc/esnative/NativeUsersStore.java
index 698cda1683a20..e4d0aec7a4441 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/authc/esnative/NativeUsersStore.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/security/authc/esnative/NativeUsersStore.java
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ private void getUserAndPassword(final String user, final ActionListener<UserAndP
             if (frozenSecurityIndex.indexExists() == false) {
                 logger.trace("could not retrieve user [{}] because security index does not exist", user);
             } else {
-                logger.error("security index is unavailable. short circuiting retrieval of user [{}]", user);
+                logger.warn("security index is unavailable. short circuiting retrieval of user [{}]", user);
             }
             listener.onResponse(null);
         } else {