diff --git a/app/vmauth/README.md b/app/vmauth/README.md
index 3855568ad..bc366a797 100644
--- a/app/vmauth/README.md
+++ b/app/vmauth/README.md
@@ -222,6 +222,8 @@ users:
   # For example, request to http://vmauth:8427/non/existing/path are proxied:
   #  - to http://default1:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
   #  - or http://default2:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
+  #
+  # Regular expressions are allowed in `src_paths` entries.
 - username: "foobar"
   url_map:
   - src_paths:
@@ -248,6 +250,8 @@ users:
 # Requests are routed in round-robin fashion between `url_prefix` backends.
 # The deny_partial_response query arg is added to all the routed requests.
 # The requests are re-tried if url_prefix backends send 500 or 503 response status codes.
+# Note that the unauthorized_user section takes precedence when processing a route without credentials,
+# even if such a route also exists in the users section (see https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5236).
 unauthorized_user:
   url_prefix:
   - http://vmselect-az1/?deny_partial_response=1
diff --git a/app/vmauth/auth_config.go b/app/vmauth/auth_config.go
index fbb9bb414..ab67bc498 100644
--- a/app/vmauth/auth_config.go
+++ b/app/vmauth/auth_config.go
@@ -420,6 +420,18 @@ func parseAuthConfig(data []byte) (*AuthConfig, error) {
 	}
 	ui := ac.UnauthorizedUser
 	if ui != nil {
+		if ui.Username != "" {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("field username can't be specified for unauthorized_user section")
+		}
+		if ui.Password != "" {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("field password can't be specified for unauthorized_user section")
+		}
+		if ui.BearerToken != "" {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("field bearer_token can't be specified for unauthorized_user section")
+		}
+		if ui.Name != "" {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("field name can't be specified for unauthorized_user section")
+		}
 		ui.requests = metrics.GetOrCreateCounter(`vmauth_unauthorized_user_requests_total`)
 		ui.requestsDuration = metrics.GetOrCreateSummary(`vmauth_unauthorized_user_request_duration_seconds`)
 		ui.concurrencyLimitCh = make(chan struct{}, ui.getMaxConcurrentRequests())
diff --git a/app/vmauth/example_config.yml b/app/vmauth/example_config.yml
index b21771c03..023adb991 100644
--- a/app/vmauth/example_config.yml
+++ b/app/vmauth/example_config.yml
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ users:
   # For example, request to http://vmauth:8427/non/existing/path are proxied:
   #  - to http://default1:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
   #  - or http://default2:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
+  #
+  # Regular expressions are allowed in `src_paths` entries.
 - username: "foobar"
   url_map:
   - src_paths:
diff --git a/app/vmauth/example_config_ent.yml b/app/vmauth/example_config_ent.yml
index ed9ae26e8..36e646e1e 100644
--- a/app/vmauth/example_config_ent.yml
+++ b/app/vmauth/example_config_ent.yml
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ users:
   # For example, request to http://vmauth:8427/non/existing/path are proxied:
   #  - to http://default1:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
   #  - or http://default2:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
+  #
+  # Regular expressions are allowed in `src_paths` entries.
 - username: "foobar"
   url_map:
   - src_paths:
diff --git a/app/vmauth/main.go b/app/vmauth/main.go
index 9e50366de..709f83f02 100644
--- a/app/vmauth/main.go
+++ b/app/vmauth/main.go
@@ -158,8 +158,16 @@ func processRequest(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, ui *UserInfo) {
 	up, hc, retryStatusCodes := ui.getURLPrefixAndHeaders(u)
 	isDefault := false
 	if up == nil {
-		missingRouteRequests.Inc()
 		if ui.DefaultURL == nil {
+			// Authorization should be requested for http requests without credentials
+			// to a route that is not in the configuration for unauthorized user.
+			// See https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5236
+			if ui.BearerToken == "" && ui.Username == "" && len(*authUsers.Load()) > 0 {
+				w.Header().Set("WWW-Authenticate", `Basic realm="Restricted"`)
+				http.Error(w, "missing `Authorization` request header", http.StatusUnauthorized)
+				return
+			}
+			missingRouteRequests.Inc()
 			httpserver.Errorf(w, r, "missing route for %q", u.String())
 			return
 		}
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 74bae86aa..7868e9409 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ The sandbox cluster installation is running under the constant load generated by
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): do not print redundant error logs when failed to scrape consul or nomad target. See [this pull request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/pull/5239).
 * BUGFIX: [vmstorage](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html): prevent deleted series to be searchable via `/api/v1/series` API if they were re-ingested with staleness markers. This situation could happen if user deletes the series from the target and from VM, and then vmagent sends stale markers for absent series. Thanks to @ilyatrefilov for the [issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5069) and [pull request](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/pull/5174).
 * BUGFIX: [vmstorage](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html): log warning about switching to ReadOnly mode only on state change. Before, vmstorage would log this warning every 1s. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5159) for details.
+* BUGFIX: [vmauth](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmauth.html): show browser authorization window for unauthorized requests to unsupported paths if the `unauthorized_user` section is specified. This allows properly authorizing the user. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5236) for details.
 * BUGFIX: [vmui](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#vmui): fix the `Disable cache` toggle at `JSON` and `Table` views. Previously response caching was always enabled and couldn't be disabled at these views.
 
 ## [v1.94.0](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.94.0)
diff --git a/docs/vmauth.md b/docs/vmauth.md
index 7ee675c58..9e68019f8 100644
--- a/docs/vmauth.md
+++ b/docs/vmauth.md
@@ -233,6 +233,8 @@ users:
   # For example, request to http://vmauth:8427/non/existing/path are proxied:
   #  - to http://default1:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
   #  - or http://default2:8888/unsupported_url_handler?request_path=/non/existing/path
+  #
+  # Regular expressions are allowed in `src_paths` entries.
 - username: "foobar"
   url_map:
   - src_paths:
@@ -259,6 +261,8 @@ users:
 # Requests are routed in round-robin fashion between `url_prefix` backends.
 # The deny_partial_response query arg is added to all the routed requests.
 # The requests are re-tried if url_prefix backends send 500 or 503 response status codes.
+# Note that the unauthorized_user section takes precedence when processing a route without credentials,
+# even if such a route also exists in the users section (see https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5236).
 unauthorized_user:
   url_prefix:
   - http://vmselect-az1/?deny_partial_response=1