diff --git a/api.go b/api.go
index 0aa9695702..fb59f5efd3 100644
--- a/api.go
+++ b/api.go
@@ -912,6 +912,17 @@ func postBuild(srv *Server, version float64, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Requ
 	rawRm := r.FormValue("rm")
 	repoName, tag := utils.ParseRepositoryTag(repoName)
 
+	authEncoded := r.Header.Get("X-Registry-Auth")
+	authConfig := &auth.AuthConfig{}
+	if authEncoded != "" {
+		authJson := base64.NewDecoder(base64.URLEncoding, strings.NewReader(authEncoded))
+		if err := json.NewDecoder(authJson).Decode(authConfig); err != nil {
+			// for a pull it is not an error if no auth was given
+			// to increase compatibility with the existing api it is defaulting to be empty
+			authConfig = &auth.AuthConfig{}
+		}
+	}
+
 	var context io.Reader
 
 	if remoteURL == "" {
@@ -978,7 +989,7 @@ func postBuild(srv *Server, version float64, w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Requ
 			Writer:          utils.NewWriteFlusher(w),
 			StreamFormatter: sf,
 		},
-		!suppressOutput, !noCache, rm, utils.NewWriteFlusher(w), sf)
+		!suppressOutput, !noCache, rm, utils.NewWriteFlusher(w), sf, authConfig)
 	id, err := b.Build(context)
 	if err != nil {
 		if sf.Used() {
diff --git a/buildfile.go b/buildfile.go
index 170d739ee4..be4c56c96d 100644
--- a/buildfile.go
+++ b/buildfile.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"github.com/dotcloud/docker/archive"
+	"github.com/dotcloud/docker/auth"
 	"github.com/dotcloud/docker/utils"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
@@ -33,6 +34,8 @@ type buildFile struct {
 	utilizeCache bool
 	rm           bool
 
+	authConfig *auth.AuthConfig
+
 	tmpContainers map[string]struct{}
 	tmpImages     map[string]struct{}
 
@@ -57,7 +60,7 @@ func (b *buildFile) CmdFrom(name string) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		if b.runtime.graph.IsNotExist(err) {
 			remote, tag := utils.ParseRepositoryTag(name)
-			if err := b.srv.ImagePull(remote, tag, b.outOld, b.sf, nil, nil, true); err != nil {
+			if err := b.srv.ImagePull(remote, tag, b.outOld, b.sf, b.authConfig, nil, true); err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
 			image, err = b.runtime.repositories.LookupImage(name)
@@ -568,7 +571,7 @@ func (b *buildFile) Build(context io.Reader) (string, error) {
 	return "", fmt.Errorf("An error occurred during the build\n")
 }
 
-func NewBuildFile(srv *Server, outStream, errStream io.Writer, verbose, utilizeCache, rm bool, outOld io.Writer, sf *utils.StreamFormatter) BuildFile {
+func NewBuildFile(srv *Server, outStream, errStream io.Writer, verbose, utilizeCache, rm bool, outOld io.Writer, sf *utils.StreamFormatter, auth *auth.AuthConfig) BuildFile {
 	return &buildFile{
 		runtime:       srv.runtime,
 		srv:           srv,
@@ -581,6 +584,7 @@ func NewBuildFile(srv *Server, outStream, errStream io.Writer, verbose, utilizeC
 		utilizeCache:  utilizeCache,
 		rm:            rm,
 		sf:            sf,
+		authConfig:    auth,
 		outOld:        outOld,
 	}
 }
diff --git a/commands.go b/commands.go
index b7e7c08cac..4ca69d26d2 100644
--- a/commands.go
+++ b/commands.go
@@ -226,6 +226,12 @@ func (cli *DockerCli) CmdBuild(args ...string) error {
 	}
 
 	headers := http.Header(make(map[string][]string))
+	buf, err := json.Marshal(cli.configFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	headers.Add("X-Registry-Auth", base64.URLEncoding.EncodeToString(buf))
+
 	if context != nil {
 		headers.Set("Content-Type", "application/tar")
 	}
diff --git a/docs/sources/api/docker_remote_api_v1.8.rst b/docs/sources/api/docker_remote_api_v1.8.rst
index bf03194ae4..b5eb35215a 100644
--- a/docs/sources/api/docker_remote_api_v1.8.rst
+++ b/docs/sources/api/docker_remote_api_v1.8.rst
@@ -1026,6 +1026,7 @@ Build an image from Dockerfile via stdin
    :query q: suppress verbose build output
    :query nocache: do not use the cache when building the image
    :reqheader Content-type: should be set to ``"application/tar"``.
+   :reqheader X-Registry-Auth: base64-encoded AuthConfig object
    :statuscode 200: no error
    :statuscode 500: server error