diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/sql/qa/server/security/build.gradle b/x-pack/plugin/sql/qa/server/security/build.gradle
index 7146b089d1e76..9e3d4fe1f99a7 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/sql/qa/server/security/build.gradle
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/sql/qa/server/security/build.gradle
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ subprojects {
     setting 'xpack.security.audit.enabled', 'true'
     setting 'xpack.security.enabled', 'true'
     setting 'xpack.license.self_generated.type', 'trial'
+    // skip automatically creating the "elastic" user (and the associated .security index)
+    setting 'xpack.security.autoconfiguration.enabled', 'false'
     // Setup roles used by tests
     extraConfigFile 'roles.yml', mainProject.file('roles.yml')
     /* Setup the one admin user that we run the tests as.