diff --git a/plugins/auth-backend/src/lib/OAuthProvider.ts b/plugins/auth-backend/src/lib/OAuthProvider.ts
index 6faaa9f733..8d8743d24b 100644
--- a/plugins/auth-backend/src/lib/OAuthProvider.ts
+++ b/plugins/auth-backend/src/lib/OAuthProvider.ts
@@ -46,13 +46,13 @@ const readState = (stateString: string): OAuthState => {
       new URLSearchParams(decodeURIComponent(stateString)),
     );
     return {
-      nonce: state.nonce ?? undefined,
-      env: state.env ?? undefined,
+      nonce: state.nonce ?? '',
+      env: state.env ?? '',
     };
   } catch (e) {
     return {
-      nonce: undefined,
-      env: undefined,
+      nonce: '',
+      env: '',
     };
   }
 };
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ export const verifyNonce = (req: express.Request, providerId: string) => {
   if (!cookieNonce) {
     throw new Error('Auth response is missing cookie nonce');
   }
-  if (!stateNonce) {
+  if (stateNonce.length === 0) {
     throw new Error('Auth response is missing state nonce');
   }
   if (cookieNonce !== stateNonce) {
diff --git a/plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/types.ts b/plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/types.ts
index afb136fd0f..74ed75d57a 100644
--- a/plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/types.ts
+++ b/plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/types.ts
@@ -345,6 +345,6 @@ export type SAMLEnvironmentProviderConfig = {
 export type OAuthState = {
   /* A type for the serialized value in the `state` parameter of the OAuth authorization flow
    */
-  nonce?: string;
-  env?: string;
+  nonce: string;
+  env: string;
 };