diff --git a/.changeset/brave-crews-move.md b/.changeset/brave-crews-move.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a5d22361f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/brave-crews-move.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/backend-common': patch
+---
+
+Make backend.auth.keys optional in config schema. Previously backend.auth was optional but keys was not, which meant that if another plugin introduced additional properties under backend.auth, it would implicitly make backend.auth.keys mandatory.
diff --git a/packages/backend-common/config.d.ts b/packages/backend-common/config.d.ts
index 16ca1698f6..72995dde85 100644
--- a/packages/backend-common/config.d.ts
+++ b/packages/backend-common/config.d.ts
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ export interface Config {
     /** Backend configuration for when request authentication is enabled */
     auth?: {
       /** Keys shared by all backends for signing and validating backend tokens. */
-      keys: {
+      keys?: {
         /**
          * Secret for generating tokens. Should be a base64 string, recommended
          * length is 24 bytes.