diff --git a/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py b/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
index 9c6132bf3bb..9a0f7fb36ea 100644
--- a/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
+++ b/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from django import http
 from django.test import TestCase
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy
+from django.utils.unittest import skipIf
 from django.contrib.messages import constants, utils, get_level, set_level
 from django.contrib.messages.api import MessageFailure
 from django.contrib.messages.storage import default_storage, base
@@ -12,6 +13,12 @@ from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
 
 
+def skipUnlessAuthIsInstalled(func):
+    return skipIf(
+        'django.contrib.auth' not in settings.INSTALLED_APPS,
+        "django.contrib.auth isn't installed")(func)
+
+
 def add_level_messages(storage):
     """
     Adds 6 messages from different levels (including a custom one) to a storage
@@ -196,6 +203,7 @@ class BaseTest(TestCase):
         for msg in data['messages']:
             self.assertContains(response, msg)
 
+    @skipUnlessAuthIsInstalled
     def test_middleware_disabled_auth_user(self):
         """
         Tests that the messages API successfully falls back to using
diff --git a/django/contrib/messages/tests/user_messages.py b/django/contrib/messages/tests/user_messages.py
index 8d7aeb76bb8..dad552c6fee 100644
--- a/django/contrib/messages/tests/user_messages.py
+++ b/django/contrib/messages/tests/user_messages.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ from django import http
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
 from django.contrib.messages.storage.user_messages import UserMessagesStorage,\
     LegacyFallbackStorage
+from django.contrib.messages.tests.base import skipUnlessAuthIsInstalled
 from django.contrib.messages.tests.cookie import set_cookie_data
 from django.contrib.messages.tests.fallback import FallbackTest
 from django.test import TestCase
@@ -30,6 +31,8 @@ class UserMessagesTest(TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(len(storage), 1)
         self.assertEqual(list(storage)[0].message, 'test message')
 
+UserMessagesTest = skipUnlessAuthIsInstalled(UserMessagesTest)
+
 
 class LegacyFallbackTest(FallbackTest, TestCase):
     storage_class = LegacyFallbackStorage
@@ -63,3 +66,5 @@ class LegacyFallbackTest(FallbackTest, TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(len(storage), 2)
         self.assertEqual(list(storage)[0].message, 'user message')
         self.assertEqual(list(storage)[1], 'cookie')
+
+LegacyFallbackTest = skipUnlessAuthIsInstalled(LegacyFallbackTest)