diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 689c8a65f..12290bb8c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+ - #2622, Consider any PostgreSQL authentication failure as fatal and exit immediately - @michivi
+
 ### Added
 
  - #1414, Add related orders - @steve-chavez
diff --git a/nix/tools/withTools.nix b/nix/tools/withTools.nix
index 042140d0c..0d6e8ad57 100644
--- a/nix/tools/withTools.nix
+++ b/nix/tools/withTools.nix
@@ -54,6 +54,10 @@ let
         export PGDATABASE
         export PGRST_DB_SCHEMAS
 
+        HBA_FILE="$tmpdir/pg_hba.conf"
+        echo "local $PGDATABASE some_protected_user password" > "$HBA_FILE"
+        echo "local $PGDATABASE all trust" >> "$HBA_FILE"
+
         log "Initializing database cluster..."
         # We try to make the database cluster as independent as possible from the host
         # by specifying the timezone, locale and encoding.
@@ -62,7 +66,7 @@ let
 
         log "Starting the database cluster..."
         # Instead of listening on a local port, we will listen on a unix domain socket.
-        pg_ctl -l "$tmpdir/db.log" -w start -o "-F -c listen_addresses=\"\" -k $PGHOST -c log_statement=\"all\"" \
+        pg_ctl -l "$tmpdir/db.log" -w start -o "-F -c listen_addresses=\"\" -c hba_file=$HBA_FILE -k $PGHOST -c log_statement=\"all\"" \
           >> "$setuplog"
 
         # shellcheck disable=SC2317
diff --git a/src/PostgREST/Error.hs b/src/PostgREST/Error.hs
index 45c4ae8a7..aa59e02c5 100644
--- a/src/PostgREST/Error.hs
+++ b/src/PostgREST/Error.hs
@@ -450,7 +450,7 @@ checkIsFatal :: PgError -> Maybe Text
 checkIsFatal (PgError _ (SQL.ConnectionUsageError e))
   | isAuthFailureMessage = Just $ toS failureMessage
   | otherwise = Nothing
-  where isAuthFailureMessage = "FATAL:  password authentication failed" `isPrefixOf` failureMessage
+  where isAuthFailureMessage = "FATAL:  password authentication failed" `isInfixOf` failureMessage
         failureMessage = BS.unpack $ fromMaybe mempty e
 checkIsFatal (PgError _ (SQL.SessionUsageError (SQL.QueryError _ _ (SQL.ResultError serverError))))
   = case serverError of
diff --git a/test/io/postgrest.py b/test/io/postgrest.py
index ae977e3e2..2a8745f11 100644
--- a/test/io/postgrest.py
+++ b/test/io/postgrest.py
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ def run(
     env=None,
     port=None,
     host=None,
+    wait_for_readiness=True,
     no_pool_connection_available=False,
 ):
     "Run PostgREST and yield an endpoint that is ready for connections."
@@ -88,7 +89,8 @@ def run(
             process.stdin.write(stdin or b"")
             process.stdin.close()
 
-            wait_until_ready(adminurl + "/ready")
+            if wait_for_readiness:
+                wait_until_ready(adminurl + "/ready")
 
             process.stdout.read()
 
@@ -137,6 +139,14 @@ def freeport():
         return s.getsockname()[1]
 
 
+def wait_until_exit(postgrest):
+    "Wait for PostgREST to exit, or times out"
+    try:
+        return postgrest.process.wait(timeout=1)
+    except (subprocess.TimeoutExpired):
+        raise PostgrestTimedOut()
+
+
 def wait_until_ready(url):
     "Wait for the given HTTP endpoint to return a status of 200."
     session = requests_unixsocket.Session()
diff --git a/test/io/test_io.py b/test/io/test_io.py
index ebe6872ce..e5bbf443f 100644
--- a/test/io/test_io.py
+++ b/test/io/test_io.py
@@ -66,6 +66,15 @@ def test_read_secret_from_stdin_dbconfig(defaultenv):
         assert response.status_code == 200
 
 
+def test_fail_with_invalid_password(defaultenv):
+    "Connecting with an invalid password should fail without retries."
+    uri = f'postgresql://?dbname={defaultenv["PGDATABASE"]}&host={defaultenv["PGHOST"]}&user=some_protected_user&password=invalid_pass'
+    env = {**defaultenv, "PGRST_DB_URI": uri}
+    with run(env=env, wait_for_readiness=False) as postgrest:
+        exitCode = wait_until_exit(postgrest)
+        assert exitCode == 1
+
+
 def test_connect_with_dburi(dburi, defaultenv):
     "Connecting with db-uri instead of LIPQ* environment variables should work."
     defaultenv_without_libpq = {