diff --git a/config/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParser.java b/config/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParser.java
index a0d7de83f65..9cbe4f93cd9 100644
--- a/config/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParser.java
+++ b/config/src/main/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParser.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2016 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2024 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ protected String getBeanClassName(Element element) {
 	@Override
 	protected void doParse(Element element, ParserContext parserContext, BeanDefinitionBuilder builder) {
 		String dataSource = element.getAttribute(ATT_DATA_SOURCE);
-		if (dataSource != null) {
+		if (StringUtils.hasText(dataSource)) {
 			builder.addPropertyReference("dataSource", dataSource);
 		}
 		else {
diff --git a/config/src/test/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParserTests.java b/config/src/test/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParserTests.java
index 41395cd8b41..7a07eeb69d3 100644
--- a/config/src/test/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParserTests.java
+++ b/config/src/test/java/org/springframework/security/config/authentication/JdbcUserServiceBeanDefinitionParserTests.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2002-2022 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2002-2024 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -19,7 +19,10 @@
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterEach;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXParseException;
 
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.BeanDefinitionParsingException;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionStoreException;
 import org.springframework.security.authentication.AuthenticationManager;
 import org.springframework.security.authentication.CachingUserDetailsService;
 import org.springframework.security.authentication.ProviderManager;
@@ -33,6 +36,7 @@
 import org.springframework.security.util.FieldUtils;
 
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatExceptionOfType;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
 
 /**
@@ -160,6 +164,38 @@ public void rolePrefixIsUsedWhenSet() {
 		assertThat(AuthorityUtils.authorityListToSet(rod.getAuthorities())).contains("PREFIX_ROLE_SUPERVISOR");
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testEmptyDataSourceRef() {
+		// @formatter:off
+		String xml = "<authentication-manager>"
+					+ "  <authentication-provider>"
+					+ "    <jdbc-user-service data-source-ref=''/>"
+					+ "  </authentication-provider>"
+					+ "</authentication-manager>";
+		assertThatExceptionOfType(BeanDefinitionParsingException.class)
+				.isThrownBy(() -> setContext(xml))
+				.withFailMessage("Expected exception due to empty data-source-ref")
+				.withMessageContaining("data-source-ref is required for jdbc-user-service");
+		// @formatter:on
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testMissingDataSourceRef() {
+		// @formatter:off
+		String xml = "<authentication-manager>"
+					+ "  <authentication-provider>"
+					+ "    <jdbc-user-service/>"
+					+ "  </authentication-provider>"
+					+ "</authentication-manager>";
+		assertThatExceptionOfType(XmlBeanDefinitionStoreException.class)
+				.isThrownBy(() -> setContext(xml))
+				.withFailMessage("Expected exception due to missing data-source-ref")
+				.havingRootCause()
+				.isInstanceOf(SAXParseException.class)
+				.withMessageContaining("Attribute 'data-source-ref' must appear on element 'jdbc-user-service'");
+		// @formatter:on
+	}
+
 	private void setContext(String context) {
 		this.appContext = new InMemoryXmlApplicationContext(context);
 	}