curl -i -H "X-Auth-User:user:wer" -H "X-Auth-Key:tespass" http://localhost:8080/auth/v1.0
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Storage-Url: http://localhost:8080/v1/AUTH_user
X-Auth-Token: AUTH_tk1e82afb0aad14c2e8cc6501bc13562e1
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
X-Storage-Token: AUTH_tk1e82afb0aad14c2e8cc6501bc13562e1
Content-Length: 0
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 22:43:58 GMT

vs

export ST_AUTH=http://127.0.0.1:8080/auth/v1.0
export ST_KEY=tespass
export ST_USER=user:wer

swift stat
Account HEAD failed: http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1/AUTH_user 403 Forbidden

vs

 swift -U user:wer -K tespass -A http://localhost:8080/auth/v1.0 stat
Account HEAD failed: http://localhost:8080/v1/AUTH_user 403 Forbidden

some logs:

Feb 21 22:38:11  proxy-server 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 21/Feb/2014/22/38/11 HEAD /v1/AUTH_user HTTP/1.0 403 - - user%2CAUTH_tk10cbdebd73b84c7a88798064a35ca5dc - - - txce35a6721bf246669230e626b04e3a01 - 0.0008 -
Feb 21 22:38:11  llswiift AUTH_user (txn: txce35a6721bf246669230e626b04e3a01) (client_ip: 127.0.0.1)
Feb 21 22:44:55  proxy-server 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 21/Feb/2014/22/44/55 HEAD /v1/AUTH_user HTTP/1.0 403 - - user%2CAUTH_tk1e82afb0aad14c2e8cc6501bc13562e1 - - - txfd58963553b34250a9036d13d3935da7 - 0.0016 -
Feb 21 22:44:55  llswiift AUTH_user (txn: txfd58963553b34250a9036d13d3935da7) (client_ip: 127.0.0.1)
Feb 21 22:46:03  proxy-server 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 21/Feb/2014/22/46/03 HEAD /v1/AUTH_user HTTP/1.0 403 - - user%2CAUTH_tk1e82afb0aad14c2e8cc6501bc13562e1 - - - tx711ba81472cf43348691474d2fac32c0 - 0.0015 -
Feb 21 22:46:03  llswiift AUTH_user (txn: tx711ba81472cf43348691474d2fac32c0) (client_ip: 127.0.0.1)