[BUG] ENEEDAUTH when trying to publish to private jfrog artifactory after upgrade of npm

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

Everything was working until I updated Node (and npm). Now I keep getting this:

npm ERR! code ENEEDAUTH
npm ERR! need auth This command requires you to be logged in to https://domain/artifactory/api/npm/npm
npm ERR! need auth You need to authorize this machine using `npm adduser`

Expected Behavior

Expecting to succeed publish

Steps To Reproduce

My local .npmrc file:

registry=https://domain/artifactory/api/npm/npm/
always-auth=true
email=stan@domain.com
//domain/artifactory/api/npm/npm/:_auth=<token>

I tried plain npm publish and also with parameters with no success

npm publish --userconfig=./.npmrc --registry=https://domain/artifactory/api/npm/npm/

npm whoami returns my user and everything looks good

Environment

• npm: 9.3.1
• Node.js:18.14.0
• OS Name: Linux

Start with the supplied .npmrc configuration and reproduce the failure using npm 9.3.1, Node.js 18.14.0, and the documented npm publish command against the private Artifactory registry. Compare the publish authentication behavior with npm whoami, and consider the issue resolved when publishing succeeds with the provided token-based configuration.