diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 4c047be802..d6b2d783ff 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -310,7 +310,6 @@ static CURL *get_curl_handle(void)
 static void http_auth_init(const char *url)
 {
 	const char *at, *colon, *cp, *slash, *host, *proto_end;
-	char *decoded;
 	struct strbuf unique = STRBUF_INIT;
 
 	proto_end = strstr(url, "://");
@@ -342,11 +341,11 @@ static void http_auth_init(const char *url)
 		host = at + 1;
 	}
 
+	http_auth.description = url_decode_mem(host, slash - host);
+
 	strbuf_add(&unique, url, proto_end - url);
 	strbuf_addch(&unique, ':');
-	decoded = url_decode_mem(host, slash - host);
-	strbuf_addstr(&unique, decoded);
-	free(decoded);
+	strbuf_addstr(&unique, http_auth.description);
 	http_auth.unique = strbuf_detach(&unique, NULL);
 }
 
diff --git a/t/t5550-http-fetch.sh b/t/t5550-http-fetch.sh
index 407e1cb3c6..b04261cfb5 100755
--- a/t/t5550-http-fetch.sh
+++ b/t/t5550-http-fetch.sh
@@ -51,8 +51,8 @@ test_expect_success 'setup askpass helpers' '
 	GIT_ASKPASS="$PWD/askpass" &&
 	export GIT_ASKPASS &&
 	>askpass-expect-none &&
-	echo "askpass: Password: " >askpass-expect-pass &&
-	{ echo "askpass: Username: " &&
+	echo "askpass: Password for '\''$HTTPD_DEST'\'': " >askpass-expect-pass &&
+	{ echo "askpass: Username for '\''$HTTPD_DEST'\'': " &&
 	  cat askpass-expect-pass
 	} >askpass-expect-both
 '