protected function getUsersPassword()
    {

        try {
            // load the application context
            $application = RequestHandler::getApplicationContext();

            // load and return the user's password or throw an exception
            return new String($application->search(sprintf('%s/%s', $this->userPathPrefix, $this->getUsername())));

        } catch (\Exception $e) {
            throw new LoginException('No matching username found in naming directory');
        }
    }