diff --git a/builtin/credential/ldap/backend.go b/builtin/credential/ldap/backend.go
index 85ea2d88b12b..9250fce6c939 100644
--- a/builtin/credential/ldap/backend.go
+++ b/builtin/credential/ldap/backend.go
@@ -104,13 +104,13 @@ func (b *backend) Login(req *logical.Request, username string, password string)
 	// Clean connection
 	defer c.Close()
 
-	bindDN, err := b.getBindDN(cfg, c, username)
+	userBindDN, err := b.getUserBindDN(cfg, c, username)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, logical.ErrorResponse(err.Error()), nil
 	}
 
 	if b.Logger().IsDebug() {
-		b.Logger().Debug("auth/ldap: BindDN fetched", "username", username, "binddn", bindDN)
+		b.Logger().Debug("auth/ldap: User BindDN fetched", "username", username, "binddn", userBindDN)
 	}
 
 	if cfg.DenyNullBind && len(password) == 0 {
@@ -118,11 +118,22 @@ func (b *backend) Login(req *logical.Request, username string, password string)
 	}
 
 	// Try to bind as the login user. This is where the actual authentication takes place.
-	if err = c.Bind(bindDN, password); err != nil {
+	if err = c.Bind(userBindDN, password); err != nil {
 		return nil, logical.ErrorResponse(fmt.Sprintf("LDAP bind failed: %v", err)), nil
 	}
 
-	userDN, err := b.getUserDN(cfg, c, bindDN)
+	// We re-bind to the BindDN if it's defined because we assume
+	// the BindDN should be the one to search, not the user logging in.
+	if cfg.BindDN != "" && cfg.BindPassword != "" {
+		if err := c.Bind(cfg.BindDN, cfg.BindPassword); err != nil {
+			return nil, logical.ErrorResponse(fmt.Sprintf("Encountered an error while attempting to re-bind with the BindDN User: %s", err.Error())), nil
+		}
+		if b.Logger().IsDebug() {
+			b.Logger().Debug("auth/ldap: Re-Bound to original BindDN")
+		}
+	}
+
+	userDN, err := b.getUserDN(cfg, c, userBindDN)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, logical.ErrorResponse(err.Error()), nil
 	}
@@ -165,7 +176,7 @@ func (b *backend) Login(req *logical.Request, username string, password string)
 			policies = append(policies, group.Policies...)
 		}
 	}
-	if user !=nil && user.Policies != nil {
+	if user != nil && user.Policies != nil {
 		policies = append(policies, user.Policies...)
 	}
 	// Policies from each group may overlap
@@ -218,7 +229,7 @@ func (b *backend) getCN(dn string) string {
  * 2. If upndomain is set, the user dn is constructed as 'username@upndomain'. See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc223499.aspx
  *
  */
-func (b *backend) getBindDN(cfg *ConfigEntry, c *ldap.Conn, username string) (string, error) {
+func (b *backend) getUserBindDN(cfg *ConfigEntry, c *ldap.Conn, username string) (string, error) {
 	bindDN := ""
 	if cfg.DiscoverDN || (cfg.BindDN != "" && cfg.BindPassword != "") {
 		if err := c.Bind(cfg.BindDN, cfg.BindPassword); err != nil {
diff --git a/website/source/docs/auth/ldap.html.md b/website/source/docs/auth/ldap.html.md
index 7ec754f2a8ba..3912192ba86c 100644
--- a/website/source/docs/auth/ldap.html.md
+++ b/website/source/docs/auth/ldap.html.md
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ There are two alternate methods of resolving the user object used to authenticat
 
 #### Binding - Authenticated Search
 
-* `binddn` (string, optional) - Distinguished name of object to bind when performing user search. Example: `cn=vault,ou=Users,dc=example,dc=com`
+* `binddn` (string, optional) - Distinguished name of object to bind when performing user and group search. Example: `cn=vault,ou=Users,dc=example,dc=com`
 * `bindpass` (string, optional) - Password to use along with `binddn` when performing user search.
 * `userdn` (string, optional) - Base DN under which to perform user search. Example: `ou=Users,dc=example,dc=com`
 * `userattr` (string, optional) - Attribute on user attribute object matching the username passed when authenticating. Examples: `sAMAccountName`, `cn`, `uid`
@@ -146,6 +146,7 @@ Once a user has been authenticated, the LDAP auth backend must know how to resol
 * `groupdn` (string, required) - LDAP search base to use for group membership search. This can be the root containing either groups or users. Example: `ou=Groups,dc=example,dc=com`
 * `groupattr` (string, optional) - LDAP attribute to follow on objects returned by `groupfilter` in order to enumerate user group membership. Examples: for groupfilter queries returning _group_ objects, use: `cn`. For queries returning _user_ objects, use: `memberOf`. The default is `cn`.
 
+*Note*: When using _Authenticated Search_ for binding parameters (see above) the distinguished name defined for `binddn` is used for the group search.  Otherwise, the authenticating user is used to perform the group search.
 
 Use `vault path-help` for more details.