diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ee1d657..adcc11d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ and **Merged pull requests**. Critical items to know are:
 The versions coincide with releases on pip. Only major versions will be released as tags on Github.
 
 ## [0.0.x](https://github.com/oras-project/oras-py/tree/main) (0.0.x)
+ - add missing prefix property to auth backend (0.2.23)
  - allow for filepaths to include `:` (0.2.22)
  - release request (0.2.21)
  - add missing basic auth data for request token function in token auth backend (0.2.2)
diff --git a/oras/auth/__init__.py b/oras/auth/__init__.py
index ff6b65f..6ea5900 100644
--- a/oras/auth/__init__.py
+++ b/oras/auth/__init__.py
@@ -14,10 +14,11 @@ class AuthenticationException(Exception):
     pass
 
 
-def get_auth_backend(name="token", session=None, **kwargs):
+def get_auth_backend(name="token", session=None, insecure=False, **kwargs):
     backend = auth_backends.get(name)
     if not backend:
         raise ValueError(f"Authentication backend {backend} is not known.")
     backend = backend(**kwargs)
     backend.session = session or requests.Session()
+    backend.prefix = "http" if insecure else "https"
     return backend
diff --git a/oras/auth/base.py b/oras/auth/base.py
index 37098e5..8dd7ad8 100644
--- a/oras/auth/base.py
+++ b/oras/auth/base.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ class AuthBackend:
 
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         self._auths: dict = {}
+        self.prefix: str = "https"
 
     def get_auth_header(self):
         raise NotImplementedError
diff --git a/oras/provider.py b/oras/provider.py
index ff2e950..e1d04c1 100644
--- a/oras/provider.py
+++ b/oras/provider.py
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.session.cookies.set_policy(DefaultCookiePolicy(allowed_domains=[]))
 
         # Get custom backend, pass on session to share
-        self.auth = oras.auth.get_auth_backend(auth_backend, self.session)
+        self.auth = oras.auth.get_auth_backend(auth_backend, self.session, insecure)
 
     def __repr__(self) -> str:
         return str(self)
diff --git a/oras/version.py b/oras/version.py
index b278706..7e49a30 100644
--- a/oras/version.py
+++ b/oras/version.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 __copyright__ = "Copyright The ORAS Authors."
 __license__ = "Apache-2.0"
 
-__version__ = "0.2.22"
+__version__ = "0.2.23"
 AUTHOR = "Vanessa Sochat"
 EMAIL = "vsoch@users.noreply.github.com"
 NAME = "oras"