diff --git a/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb b/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb
index a0cbe54bb82..32ad2df84d1 100644
--- a/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ class CategoriesController < ApplicationController
 
     @category =
       begin
-        Category.new(category_params.merge(user: current_user))
+        Category.new(required_create_params.merge(user: current_user))
       rescue ArgumentError => e
         return render json: { errors: [e.message] }, status: 422
       end
@@ -266,15 +266,18 @@ class CategoriesController < ApplicationController
   end
 
   def required_param_keys
-    [:name, :color, :text_color]
+    [:name]
+  end
+
+  def required_create_params
+    required_param_keys.each do |key|
+      params.require(key)
+    end
+    category_params
   end
 
   def category_params
     @category_params ||= begin
-      required_param_keys.each do |key|
-        params.require(key)
-      end
-
       if p = params[:permissions]
         p.each do |k, v|
           p[k] = v.to_i
@@ -290,6 +293,9 @@ class CategoriesController < ApplicationController
       result = params.permit(
         *required_param_keys,
         :position,
+        :name,
+        :color,
+        :text_color,
         :email_in,
         :email_in_allow_strangers,
         :mailinglist_mirror,
diff --git a/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb b/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb
index 6a605770c89..65cd0a7dbed 100644
--- a/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb
@@ -120,16 +120,6 @@ describe CategoriesController do
         expect(response.status).to eq(400)
       end
 
-      it "raises an exception when the color is missing" do
-        post "/categories.json", params: { name: "hello", text_color: "fff" }
-        expect(response.status).to eq(400)
-      end
-
-      it "raises an exception when the text color is missing" do
-        post "/categories.json", params: { name: "hello", color: "ff0" }
-        expect(response.status).to eq(400)
-      end
-
       describe "failure" do
         it "returns errors on a duplicate category name" do
           category = Fabricate(:category, user: admin)
@@ -314,27 +304,6 @@ describe CategoriesController do
         expect(response).to be_forbidden
       end
 
-      it "requires a name" do
-        put "/categories/#{category.slug}.json", params: {
-          color: 'fff',
-          text_color: '0ff',
-        }
-        expect(response.status).to eq(400)
-      end
-
-      it "requires a color" do
-        put "/categories/#{category.slug}.json", params: {
-          name: 'asdf',
-          text_color: '0ff',
-        }
-        expect(response.status).to eq(400)
-      end
-
-      it "requires a text color" do
-        put "/categories/#{category.slug}.json", params: { name: 'asdf', color: 'fff' }
-        expect(response.status).to eq(400)
-      end
-
       it "returns errors on a duplicate category name" do
         other_category = Fabricate(:category, name: "Other", user: admin)
         put "/categories/#{category.id}.json", params: {