diff --git a/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/set_role b/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/set_role
index 9efa32fb2848..28c60c2d859e 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/set_role
+++ b/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/set_role
@@ -374,5 +374,11 @@ WHERE active_queries LIKE 'SELECT user_name%'
 ----
 root
 
+# Verify that SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION *does* reset the role.
 statement ok
-RESET ROLE
+SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION DEFAULT
+
+query TTTT
+SELECT current_user(), current_user, session_user(), session_user
+----
+root  root  root  root
diff --git a/pkg/sql/sessiondatapb/local_only_session_data.proto b/pkg/sql/sessiondatapb/local_only_session_data.proto
index 89c8234ed670..f4c9a3677a35 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/sessiondatapb/local_only_session_data.proto
+++ b/pkg/sql/sessiondatapb/local_only_session_data.proto
@@ -169,6 +169,8 @@ message LocalOnlySessionData {
   // established the connection before SET ROLE was first performed.
   // This is only populated when SET ROLE is used, otherwise the session_user
   // is the same as the UserProto in SessionData.
+  // Postgres allows the SessionUser to be changed with SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
+  // but CockroachDB doesn't allow that at the time of this writing.
   string session_user_proto = 46 [(gogoproto.casttype) = "github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/security/username.SQLUsernameProto"];
   // TxnRowsWrittenLog is the threshold for the number of rows written by a SQL
   // transaction which - once exceeded - will trigger a logging event to SQL_PERF
diff --git a/pkg/sql/set_session_authorization.go b/pkg/sql/set_session_authorization.go
index ed61801eabae..b4d704e97d46 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/set_session_authorization.go
+++ b/pkg/sql/set_session_authorization.go
@@ -10,8 +10,26 @@
 
 package sql
 
+import (
+	"context"
+
+	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/sql/sem/tree"
+)
+
 func (p *planner) SetSessionAuthorizationDefault() (planNode, error) {
-	// This is currently a no-op - we don't support changing the session
-	// authorization, and the parser only accepts DEFAULT.
-	return newZeroNode(nil /* columns */), nil
+	return &setSessionAuthorizationDefaultNode{}, nil
+}
+
+type setSessionAuthorizationDefaultNode struct{}
+
+func (n *setSessionAuthorizationDefaultNode) Next(_ runParams) (bool, error) { return false, nil }
+func (n *setSessionAuthorizationDefaultNode) Values() tree.Datums            { return nil }
+func (n *setSessionAuthorizationDefaultNode) Close(_ context.Context)        {}
+func (n *setSessionAuthorizationDefaultNode) startExec(params runParams) error {
+	// This is currently the same as `SET ROLE = DEFAULT`, which means that it
+	// only changes the "current user." In Postgres, `SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION`
+	// also changes the "session user," but since the session user cannot be
+	// modified in CockroachDB (at the time of writing), we just need to change
+	// the current user here.
+	return params.p.setRole(params.ctx, false /* local */, params.p.SessionData().SessionUser())
 }
diff --git a/pkg/sql/walk.go b/pkg/sql/walk.go
index 4135902f0a58..de6bd221537a 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/walk.go
+++ b/pkg/sql/walk.go
@@ -449,6 +449,7 @@ var planNodeNames = map[reflect.Type]string{
 	reflect.TypeOf(&sequenceSelectNode{}):                      "sequence select",
 	reflect.TypeOf(&serializeNode{}):                           "run",
 	reflect.TypeOf(&setClusterSettingNode{}):                   "set cluster setting",
+	reflect.TypeOf(&setSessionAuthorizationDefaultNode{}):      "set session authorization",
 	reflect.TypeOf(&setVarNode{}):                              "set",
 	reflect.TypeOf(&setZoneConfigNode{}):                       "configure zone",
 	reflect.TypeOf(&showFingerprintsNode{}):                    "show fingerprints",