diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/LdapGroupsMapping.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/LdapGroupsMapping.java
index 78f9ff794f5..0369d2144d4 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/LdapGroupsMapping.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/LdapGroupsMapping.java
@@ -398,15 +398,19 @@ public class LdapGroupsMapping
   }
 
   String getPassword(Configuration conf, String alias, String defaultPass) {
-    String password = defaultPass;
+    String password = null;
     try {
       char[] passchars = conf.getPassword(alias);
       if (passchars != null) {
         password = new String(passchars);
       }
-    } catch (IOException ioe) {
-      LOG.warn("Exception while trying to get password for alias " + alias
-              + ": ", ioe);
+      else {
+        password = defaultPass;
+      }
+    }
+    catch (IOException ioe) {
+      LOG.warn("Exception while trying to password for alias " + alias + ": "
+          + ioe.getMessage());
     }
     return password;
   }
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/TestLdapGroupsMapping.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/TestLdapGroupsMapping.java
index 9280e5b6a17..0a448b4de1e 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/TestLdapGroupsMapping.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/security/TestLdapGroupsMapping.java
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@ import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
-import org.mockito.Mockito;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
@@ -315,24 +314,4 @@ public class TestLdapGroupsMapping extends TestLdapGroupsMappingBase {
     }
   }
 
-  /**
-   * Make sure that when
-   * {@link Configuration#getPassword(String)} throws an IOException,
-   * {@link LdapGroupsMapping#setConf(Configuration)} does not throw an NPE.
-   *
-   * @throws Exception
-   */
-  @Test(timeout = 10000)
-  public void testSetConf() throws Exception {
-    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
-    Configuration mockConf = Mockito.spy(conf);
-    when(mockConf.getPassword(anyString()))
-        .thenThrow(new IOException("injected IOException"));
-    // Set a dummy LDAP server URL.
-    mockConf.set(LdapGroupsMapping.LDAP_URL_KEY, "ldap://test");
-
-    LdapGroupsMapping groupsMapping = getGroupsMapping();
-    groupsMapping.setConf(mockConf);
-  }
-
 }