diff --git a/advanced/Scripts/api.sh b/advanced/Scripts/api.sh
index 18a48ce7..efffa25a 100755
--- a/advanced/Scripts/api.sh
+++ b/advanced/Scripts/api.sh
@@ -75,9 +75,15 @@ TestAPIAvailability() {
 }
 
 Authentication() {
-    # Try to authenticate
-    LoginAPI
+    # Try to read the CLI password (if enabled and readable by the current user)
+    if [ -r /etc/pihole/cli_pw ]; then
+        password=$(cat /etc/pihole/cli_pw)
 
+        # Try to authenticate using the CLI password
+        LoginAPI
+    fi
+
+    # If this did not work, ask the user for the password
     while [ "${validSession}" = false ] || [ -z "${validSession}" ] ; do
         echo "Authentication failed. Please enter your Pi-hole password"
 
@@ -105,7 +111,7 @@ LoginAPI() {
   SID=$(echo "${sessionResponse}"| jq --raw-output .session.sid 2>/dev/null)
 }
 
-DeleteSession() {
+LogoutAPI() {
     # if a valid Session exists (no password required or successful Authentication) and
     # SID is not null (successful Authentication only), delete the session
     if [ "${validSession}" = true ] && [ ! "${SID}" = null ]; then
diff --git a/advanced/Scripts/query.sh b/advanced/Scripts/query.sh
index 493c75ea..123eee21 100755
--- a/advanced/Scripts/query.sh
+++ b/advanced/Scripts/query.sh
@@ -128,22 +128,14 @@ Main() {
     # Test if the authentication endpoint is available
     TestAPIAvailability
 
-    # Users can configure FTL in a way, that for accessing a) all endpoints (webserver.api.localAPIauth)
-    # or b) for the /search endpoint (webserver.api.searchAPIauth) no authentication is required.
-    # Therefore, we try to query directly without authentication but do authenticat if 401 is returned
+    # Authenticate with FTL
+    Authentication
 
+    # send query again
     data=$(GetFTLData "search/${domain}?N=${max_results}&partial=${partial}")
 
-    if [ "${data}" = 401 ]; then
-        # Unauthenticated, so authenticate with the FTL server required
-        Authentication
-
-        # send query again
-        data=$(GetFTLData "search/${domain}?N=${max_results}&partial=${partial}")
-    fi
-
     GenerateOutput "${data}"
-    DeleteSession
+    LogoutAPI
 }
 
 # Process all options (if present)