NullPointerException on invalid HTTP request

[legsem]

Hello,

I am running Quarkus 3.33.1 in production and getting this exception sometimes:

2026-04-01 18:28:50,841+02:00 ERROR [io.qua.ver.cor.run.VertxCoreRecorder] (vert.x-eventloop-thread-6) Uncaught exception received by Vert.x: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "String.length()" because "this.input" is null
	at java.base/java.net.URI$Parser.parse(URI.java:3186)
	at java.base/java.net.URI.<init>(URI.java:645)
	at io.quarkus.vertx.http.runtime.VertxHttpRecorder$1.uriValid(VertxHttpRecorder.java:212)
	at io.quarkus.vertx.http.runtime.VertxHttpRecorder$1.handle(VertxHttpRecorder.java:181)
	at io.quarkus.vertx.http.runtime.VertxHttpRecorder$1.handle(VertxHttpRecorder.java:170)
	at io.vertx.core.impl.ContextImpl.emit(ContextImpl.java:342)
	at io.vertx.core.impl.DuplicatedContext.emit(DuplicatedContext.java:163)
	at io.vertx.core.http.impl.Http2ServerRequest.dispatch(Http2ServerRequest.java:91)
	at io.vertx.core.http.impl.Http2ServerStream.onHeaders(Http2ServerStream.java:136)
	at io.vertx.core.http.impl.Http2ServerConnection.onHeadersRead(Http2ServerConnection.java:187)
	at io.vertx.core.http.impl.Http2ConnectionBase.onHeadersRead(Http2ConnectionBase.java:209)
	at io.vertx.core.http.impl.Http2ServerConnection.onHeadersRead(Http2ServerConnection.java:38)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2FrameListenerDecorator.onHeadersRead(Http2FrameListenerDecorator.java:46)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2FrameListenerDecorator.onHeadersRead(Http2FrameListenerDecorator.java:46)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2EmptyDataFrameListener.onHeadersRead(Http2EmptyDataFrameListener.java:63)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2ConnectionDecoder$FrameReadListener.onHeadersRead(DefaultHttp2ConnectionDecoder.java:430)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2ConnectionDecoder$FrameReadListener.onHeadersRead(DefaultHttp2ConnectionDecoder.java:345)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2FrameReader$2.processFragment(DefaultHttp2FrameReader.java:473)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2FrameReader.readHeadersFrame(DefaultHttp2FrameReader.java:481)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2FrameReader.processPayloadState(DefaultHttp2FrameReader.java:247)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2FrameReader.readFrame(DefaultHttp2FrameReader.java:164)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DefaultHttp2ConnectionDecoder.decodeFrame(DefaultHttp2ConnectionDecoder.java:186)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DecoratingHttp2ConnectionDecoder.decodeFrame(DecoratingHttp2ConnectionDecoder.java:61)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.DecoratingHttp2ConnectionDecoder.decodeFrame(DecoratingHttp2ConnectionDecoder.java:61)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2ConnectionHandler$FrameDecoder.decode(Http2ConnectionHandler.java:391)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.http2.Http2ConnectionHandler.decode(Http2ConnectionHandler.java:451)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.decodeRemovalReentryProtection(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:545)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.callDecode(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:484)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.channelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:296)
	at io.vertx.core.http.impl.VertxHttp2ConnectionHandler.channelRead(VertxHttp2ConnectionHandler.java:419)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:444)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:420)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:412)
	at io.netty.handler.timeout.IdleStateHandler.channelRead(IdleStateHandler.java:289)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:442)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:420)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:412)
	at io.netty.handler.ssl.SslHandler.unwrap(SslHandler.java:1519)
	at io.netty.handler.ssl.SslHandler.decodeJdkCompatible(SslHandler.java:1377)
	at io.netty.handler.ssl.SslHandler.decode(SslHandler.java:1428)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.decodeRemovalReentryProtection(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:545)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.callDecode(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:484)
	at io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.channelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:296)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:444)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:420)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:412)
	at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline$HeadContext.channelRead(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:1357)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:440)
	at io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:420)
	at io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline.fireChannelRead(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:868)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.AbstractNioByteChannel$NioByteUnsafe.read(AbstractNioByteChannel.java:166)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKey(NioEventLoop.java:796)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeysOptimized(NioEventLoop.java:732)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeys(NioEventLoop.java:658)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.run(NioEventLoop.java:562)
	at io.netty.util.concurrent.SingleThreadEventExecutor$4.run(SingleThreadEventExecutor.java:998)
	at io.netty.util.internal.ThreadExecutorMap$2.run(ThreadExecutorMap.java:74)
	at io.netty.util.concurrent.FastThreadLocalRunnable.run(FastThreadLocalRunnable.java:30)
	at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1583)

I could not reproduce this in dev (at least with a curl client).

An invalid http request for sure since URI is apparently missing but maybe the code here:

quarkus/extensions/vertx-http/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/vertx/http/runtime/VertxHttpRecorder.java

Line 212 in ef75a40

new URI(httpServerRequest.uri());

could consider a null URI as invalid?

Also, I have quarkus.http.access-log.enabled=true but there does not appear to be an entry for the HTTP request that produced the above exception.

I am assuming logging did not occur because the exception somehow interrupted the flow, is that correct?

Thank you

[dmlloyd]

An NPE in our code is always a bug; could you please open an issue?

[legsem]

Thanks a lot for your quick reply. I have opened #53427.

I am still interested in the reason why the original HTTP request causing such exceptions is not showing up in the HTTP access log.

The reason I am asking is because other exceptions such as this one are frequent:

2026-04-02 17:31:54,027+02:00 WARN  [io.net.cha.DefaultChannelPipeline] (vert.x-eventloop-thread-5) An exceptionCaught() event was fired, and it reached at the tail of the pipeline. It usually means the last handler in the pipeline did not handle the exception.: java.net.SocketException: Connection reset
	at java.base/sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.throwConnectionReset(SocketChannelImpl.java:401)
	at java.base/sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.read(SocketChannelImpl.java:434)
	at io.netty.buffer.PooledByteBuf.setBytes(PooledByteBuf.java:255)
	at io.netty.buffer.AbstractByteBuf.writeBytes(AbstractByteBuf.java:1132)
	at io.netty.channel.socket.nio.NioSocketChannel.doReadBytes(NioSocketChannel.java:356)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.AbstractNioByteChannel$NioByteUnsafe.read(AbstractNioByteChannel.java:151)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKey(NioEventLoop.java:796)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeysOptimized(NioEventLoop.java:732)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeys(NioEventLoop.java:658)
	at io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.run(NioEventLoop.java:562)
	at io.netty.util.concurrent.SingleThreadEventExecutor$4.run(SingleThreadEventExecutor.java:998)
	at io.netty.util.internal.ThreadExecutorMap$2.run(ThreadExecutorMap.java:74)
	at io.netty.util.concurrent.FastThreadLocalRunnable.run(FastThreadLocalRunnable.java:30)
	at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1583)

I suspect something is wrong on my side but I can't correlate the timestamp with an actual HTTP request which would be helpful to reproduce the issue in dev.

Thanks again

[cescoffier]

For the record, it has been fixed in #53456.