diff --git a/swift/common/middleware/tempauth.py b/swift/common/middleware/tempauth.py
index 84df083d63..86a32371f3 100644
--- a/swift/common/middleware/tempauth.py
+++ b/swift/common/middleware/tempauth.py
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ import base64
 
 from eventlet import Timeout
 import six
-from swift.common.swob import Response, Request
+from swift.common.swob import Response, Request, wsgi_to_str
 from swift.common.swob import HTTPBadRequest, HTTPForbidden, HTTPNotFound, \
     HTTPUnauthorized
 
@@ -239,6 +239,9 @@ class TempAuth(object):
                     account = base64.b64decode(account)
                     username += '=' * (len(username) % 4)
                     username = base64.b64decode(username)
+                    if not six.PY2:
+                        account = account.decode('utf8')
+                        username = username.decode('utf8')
                 values = conf[conf_key].split()
                 if not values:
                     raise ValueError('%s has no key set' % conf_key)
@@ -438,7 +441,7 @@ class TempAuth(object):
             expires, groups = cached_auth_data
             if expires < time():
                 groups = None
-            else:
+            elif six.PY2:
                 groups = groups.encode('utf8')
 
         s3_auth_details = env.get('s3api.auth_details') or\
@@ -498,7 +501,7 @@ class TempAuth(object):
         or None if there are no errors.
         """
         acl_header = 'x-account-access-control'
-        acl_data = req.headers.get(acl_header)
+        acl_data = wsgi_to_str(req.headers.get(acl_header))
         result = parse_acl(version=2, data=acl_data)
         if result is None:
             return 'Syntax error in input (%r)' % acl_data
@@ -509,19 +512,17 @@ class TempAuth(object):
             # on ACLs, TempAuth is not such an auth system.  At this point,
             # it thinks it is authoritative.
             if key not in tempauth_acl_keys:
-                return "Key %s not recognized" % json.dumps(
-                    key).encode('ascii')
+                return "Key %s not recognized" % json.dumps(key)
 
         for key in tempauth_acl_keys:
             if key not in result:
                 continue
             if not isinstance(result[key], list):
-                return "Value for key %s must be a list" % json.dumps(
-                    key).encode('ascii')
+                return "Value for key %s must be a list" % json.dumps(key)
             for grantee in result[key]:
                 if not isinstance(grantee, six.string_types):
                     return "Elements of %s list must be strings" % json.dumps(
-                        key).encode('ascii')
+                        key)
 
         # Everything looks fine, no errors found
         internal_hdr = get_sys_meta_prefix('account') + 'core-access-control'
@@ -568,7 +569,7 @@ class TempAuth(object):
                               % account_user)
             return None
 
-        if account in user_groups and \
+        if wsgi_to_str(account) in user_groups and \
                 (req.method not in ('DELETE', 'PUT') or container):
             # The user is admin for the account and is not trying to do an
             # account DELETE or PUT
@@ -744,7 +745,7 @@ class TempAuth(object):
                     return HTTPUnauthorized(request=req,
                                             headers={'Www-Authenticate': auth})
                 account2, user = user.split(':', 1)
-                if account != account2:
+                if wsgi_to_str(account) != account2:
                     self.logger.increment('token_denied')
                     auth = 'Swift realm="%s"' % account
                     return HTTPUnauthorized(request=req,
@@ -800,7 +801,7 @@ class TempAuth(object):
             cached_auth_data = memcache_client.get(memcache_token_key)
             if cached_auth_data:
                 expires, old_groups = cached_auth_data
-                old_groups = [group.encode('utf8')
+                old_groups = [group.encode('utf8') if six.PY2 else group
                               for group in old_groups.split(',')]
                 new_groups = self._get_user_groups(account, account_user,
                                                    account_id)
diff --git a/swift/proxy/controllers/base.py b/swift/proxy/controllers/base.py
index 48e96d7293..fffe7846f3 100644
--- a/swift/proxy/controllers/base.py
+++ b/swift/proxy/controllers/base.py
@@ -590,7 +590,8 @@ def _get_info_from_memcache(app, env, account, container=None):
     memcache = getattr(app, 'memcache', None) or env.get('swift.cache')
     if memcache:
         info = memcache.get(cache_key)
-        if info:
+        if info and six.PY2:
+            # Get back to native strings
             for key in info:
                 if isinstance(info[key], six.text_type):
                     info[key] = info[key].encode("utf-8")
@@ -598,6 +599,7 @@ def _get_info_from_memcache(app, env, account, container=None):
                     for subkey, value in info[key].items():
                         if isinstance(value, six.text_type):
                             info[key][subkey] = value.encode("utf-8")
+        if info:
             env.setdefault('swift.infocache', {})[cache_key] = info
         return info
     return None
diff --git a/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempauth.py b/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempauth.py
index f279ad277d..a963817612 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempauth.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempauth.py
@@ -17,9 +17,10 @@
 import json
 import unittest
 from contextlib import contextmanager
-from base64 import b64encode
+from base64 import b64encode as _b64encode
 from time import time
 
+import six
 from six.moves.urllib.parse import quote, urlparse
 from swift.common.middleware import tempauth as auth
 from swift.common.middleware.acl import format_acl
@@ -29,6 +30,12 @@ from swift.common.utils import split_path
 NO_CONTENT_RESP = (('204 No Content', {}, ''),)   # mock server response
 
 
+def b64encode(str_or_bytes):
+    if not isinstance(str_or_bytes, bytes):
+        str_or_bytes = str_or_bytes.encode('utf8')
+    return _b64encode(str_or_bytes).decode('ascii')
+
+
 class FakeMemcache(object):
 
     def __init__(self):
@@ -41,7 +48,7 @@ class FakeMemcache(object):
         if isinstance(value, (tuple, list)):
             decoded = []
             for elem in value:
-                if type(elem) == str:
+                if isinstance(elem, bytes):
                     decoded.append(elem.decode('utf8'))
                 else:
                     decoded.append(elem)
@@ -972,9 +979,11 @@ class TestAuth(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_successful_token_unicode_user(self):
         app = FakeApp(iter(NO_CONTENT_RESP * 2))
-        ath = auth.filter_factory(
-            {u'user_t\u00e9st_t\u00e9ster'.encode('utf8'):
-             u'p\u00e1ss .admin'.encode('utf8')})(app)
+        conf = {u'user_t\u00e9st_t\u00e9ster': u'p\u00e1ss .admin'}
+        if six.PY2:
+            conf = {k.encode('utf8'): v.encode('utf8')
+                    for k, v in conf.items()}
+        ath = auth.filter_factory(conf)(app)
         quoted_acct = quote(u'/v1/AUTH_t\u00e9st'.encode('utf8'))
         memcache = FakeMemcache()
 
@@ -1009,7 +1018,8 @@ class TestAuth(unittest.TestCase):
 
         # ...but it also works if you send the account raw
         req = self._make_request(
-            u'/v1/AUTH_t\u00e9st', headers={'X-Auth-Token': auth_token})
+            u'/v1/AUTH_t\u00e9st'.encode('utf8'),
+            headers={'X-Auth-Token': auth_token})
         req.environ['swift.cache'] = memcache
         resp = req.get_response(ath)
         self.assertEqual(204, resp.status_int)
@@ -1395,13 +1405,13 @@ class TestAccountAcls(unittest.TestCase):
             resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
             self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 204)
 
-        errmsg = 'X-Account-Access-Control invalid: %s'
+        errmsg = b'X-Account-Access-Control invalid: %s'
         # syntactically invalid acls get a 400
         update = {'x-account-access-control': bad_acl}
         req = self._make_request(target, headers=dict(good_headers, **update))
         resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 400)
-        self.assertEqual(errmsg % "Syntax error", resp.body[:46])
+        self.assertEqual(errmsg % b"Syntax error", resp.body[:46])
 
         # syntactically valid acls with bad keys also get a 400
         update = {'x-account-access-control': wrong_acl}
@@ -1409,7 +1419,7 @@ class TestAccountAcls(unittest.TestCase):
         resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 400)
         self.assertTrue(resp.body.startswith(
-            errmsg % 'Key "other-auth-system" not recognized'), resp.body)
+            errmsg % b'Key "other-auth-system" not recognized'), resp.body)
 
         # and do something sane with crazy data
         update = {'x-account-access-control': u'{"\u1234": []}'.encode('utf8')}
@@ -1417,7 +1427,7 @@ class TestAccountAcls(unittest.TestCase):
         resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 400)
         self.assertTrue(resp.body.startswith(
-            errmsg % 'Key "\\u1234" not recognized'), resp.body)
+            errmsg % b'Key "\\u1234" not recognized'), resp.body)
 
         # acls with good keys but bad values also get a 400
         update = {'x-account-access-control': bad_value_acl}
@@ -1425,7 +1435,7 @@ class TestAccountAcls(unittest.TestCase):
         resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 400)
         self.assertTrue(resp.body.startswith(
-            errmsg % 'Value for key "admin" must be a list'), resp.body)
+            errmsg % b'Value for key "admin" must be a list'), resp.body)
 
         # acls with non-string-types in list also get a 400
         update = {'x-account-access-control': bad_list_types}
@@ -1433,7 +1443,7 @@ class TestAccountAcls(unittest.TestCase):
         resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 400)
         self.assertTrue(resp.body.startswith(
-            errmsg % 'Elements of "read-only" list must be strings'),
+            errmsg % b'Elements of "read-only" list must be strings'),
             resp.body)
 
         # acls with wrong json structure also get a 400
@@ -1441,14 +1451,14 @@ class TestAccountAcls(unittest.TestCase):
         req = self._make_request(target, headers=dict(good_headers, **update))
         resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 400)
-        self.assertEqual(errmsg % "Syntax error", resp.body[:46])
+        self.assertEqual(errmsg % b"Syntax error", resp.body[:46])
 
         # acls with wrong json structure also get a 400
         update = {'x-account-access-control': not_dict_acl2}
         req = self._make_request(target, headers=dict(good_headers, **update))
         resp = req.get_response(test_auth)
         self.assertEqual(resp.status_int, 400)
-        self.assertEqual(errmsg % "Syntax error", resp.body[:46])
+        self.assertEqual(errmsg % b"Syntax error", resp.body[:46])
 
     def test_acls_propagate_to_sysmeta(self):
         test_auth = auth.filter_factory({'user_admin_user': 'testing'})(
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 2034a4dd46..74cc8ce358 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ commands =
       test/unit/common/middleware/test_list_endpoints.py \
       test/unit/common/middleware/test_listing_formats.py \
       test/unit/common/middleware/test_proxy_logging.py \
+      test/unit/common/middleware/test_tempauth.py \
       test/unit/common/ring \
       test/unit/common/test_base_storage_server.py \
       test/unit/common/test_bufferedhttp.py \