diff --git a/ldap/src/main/java/org/openmbee/mms/ldap/LdapSecurityConfig.java b/ldap/src/main/java/org/openmbee/mms/ldap/LdapSecurityConfig.java
index 01bde33e6..7040e8739 100644
--- a/ldap/src/main/java/org/openmbee/mms/ldap/LdapSecurityConfig.java
+++ b/ldap/src/main/java/org/openmbee/mms/ldap/LdapSecurityConfig.java
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ LdapAuthoritiesPopulator ldapAuthoritiesPopulator(@Qualifier("contextSource") Ba
 
         /*
           Specificity here : we don't get the Role by reading the members of available groups (which is implemented by
-          default in Spring security LDAP), but we retrieve the groups from the field memberOf of the user.
+          default in Spring security LDAP), but we retrieve the groups the user belongs to.
          */
         class CustomLdapAuthoritiesPopulator implements LdapAuthoritiesPopulator {
 
@@ -126,11 +126,11 @@ private CustomLdapAuthoritiesPopulator(BaseLdapPathContextSource ldapContextSour
             @Override
             public Collection<? extends GrantedAuthority> getGrantedAuthorities(
                 DirContextOperations userData, String username) {
+                logger.debug("Populating authorities using LDAP");
                 Optional<User> userOptional = userRepository.findByUsername(username);
 
-                if (!userOptional.isPresent()) {
+                if (userOptional.isEmpty()) {
                     User newUser = createLdapUser(userData);
-
                     userOptional = Optional.of(newUser);
                 }
 
@@ -139,13 +139,20 @@ public Collection<? extends GrantedAuthority> getGrantedAuthorities(
                     saveLdapUser(userData, user);
                 }
                 user.setPassword(null);
-                String userDn = userAttributesUsername + "=" + user.getUsername() + "," + providerBase;
+
+                StringBuilder userDnBuilder = new StringBuilder();
+                userDnBuilder.append(userData.getDn().toString());
+                if (providerBase != null && !providerBase.isEmpty()) {
+                    userDnBuilder.append(',');
+                    userDnBuilder.append(providerBase);
+                }
+                String userDn = userDnBuilder.toString();
 
                 List<Group> definedGroups = groupRepository.findAll();
                 OrFilter orFilter = new OrFilter();
 
-                for (int i = 0; i < definedGroups.size(); i++) {
-                    orFilter.or(new EqualsFilter(groupRoleAttribute, definedGroups.get(i).getName()));
+                for (Group definedGroup : definedGroups) {
+                    orFilter.or(new EqualsFilter(groupRoleAttribute, definedGroup.getName()));
                 }
 
                 AndFilter andFilter = new AndFilter();
@@ -154,9 +161,11 @@ public Collection<? extends GrantedAuthority> getGrantedAuthorities(
                 andFilter.and(groupsFilter);
                 andFilter.and(orFilter);
 
+                String filter = andFilter.encode();
+                logger.debug("Searching LDAP with filter: {}", filter);
                 Set<String> memberGroups = ldapTemplate
-                    .searchForSingleAttributeValues("", andFilter.encode(), new Object[]{""},
-                        groupRoleAttribute);
+                    .searchForSingleAttributeValues(groupSearchBase, filter, new Object[]{""}, groupRoleAttribute);
+                logger.debug("LDAP search result: {}", Arrays.toString(memberGroups.toArray()));
 
                 Set<Group> addGroups = new HashSet<>();
                 for (String memberGroup : memberGroups) {
@@ -186,6 +195,7 @@ public BaseLdapPathContextSource contextSource() {
             providerUrl);
         contextSource.setUserDn(providerUserDn);
         contextSource.setPassword(providerPassword);
+        contextSource.setBase(providerBase);
         return contextSource;
     }
 
@@ -210,13 +220,14 @@ private User saveLdapUser(DirContextOperations userData, User saveUser) {
     }
 
     private User createLdapUser(DirContextOperations userData) {
+        String username = userData.getStringAttribute(userAttributesUsername);
+        logger.debug("Creating user for {} using LDAP", username);
         User user = saveLdapUser(userData, new User());
-        user.setUsername(userData.getStringAttribute(userAttributesUsername));
+        user.setUsername(username);
         user.setEnabled(true);
         user.setAdmin(false);
         userRepository.save(user);
 
-
         return user;
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file