NPE in ExceptionProxy.readExternal() for root cause leads to deserializationProblem = true ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Key: ARQ-1437 URL: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/ARQ-1437 Project: Arquillian Issue Type: Bug Security Level: Public(Everyone can see) Affects Versions: 1.0.2.Final, 1.1.0.Final Reporter: Falko M. Assignee: Aslak Knutsen Priority: Minor Fix For: 1.1.5.Final See line 199 (for 1.0.2.Final): {code} // reset the cause, so we can de-serialize them individual SecurityActions.setFieldValue(Throwable.class, original, "cause", causeProxy.createException()); {code} For the root cause of an exception, {{causeProxy}} will always be {{null}} and so a {{NullPointerException}} is thrown. As the code is wrapped in a try block with follwoing catch block: {code} catch (Throwable e) // ClassNotFoundExcpetion / NoClassDefFoundError { // ignore, could not load class on client side, move on and create a fake 'proxy' later deserializationProblem = true; } {code} the NPE is caught and is "expected" to be a {{ClassNotFoundExcpetion}} or {{NoClassDefFoundError}} which is clearly not the case. *Possible fix:* {{original.cause}} should only be overwritten when {{causeProxy}} is *not* null. *More context information:* I came across this problem while trying to find the reason for an unexpected {{ArquillianProxyException}}: {code}org.jboss.arquillian.test.spi.ArquillianProxyException: javax.ejb.EJBException : javax.persistence.OptimisticLockException [Proxied because : Original exception not deserilizable, ClassNotFoundException]{code} The root problem was not the NPE, but the {{ClassNotFoundException}} mislead me and so I debugged {{ExceptionProxy}}. I my case there is an {{InvalidClassException}} because of an older hibernate version on the client side. +So that is another problem of {{ExceptionProxy}} as it assumes that only {{ClassNotFoundExcpetion}} or {{NoClassDefFoundError}} can occur!+