I could reproduce it on my local (Linux) Workstation too, although it's apparently very rare:
Running org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.ConcurrentServiceTest Tests run: 3, Failures: 1, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.671 sec <<< FAILURE! - in org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.ConcurrentServiceTest concurrentSerialization(org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.ConcurrentServiceTest) Time elapsed: 0.223 sec <<< FAILURE! java.lang.AssertionError: null at org.junit.Assert.fail(Assert.java:86) at org.junit.Assert.assertTrue(Assert.java:41) at org.junit.Assert.assertFalse(Assert.java:64) at org.junit.Assert.assertFalse(Assert.java:74) at org.hibernate.search.testsupport.concurrency.ConcurrentRunner.execute(ConcurrentRunner.java:81) at org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.ConcurrentServiceTest.concurrentSerialization(ConcurrentServiceTest.java:51) Running org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.ProtocolVersion10Test Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.013 sec - in org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.ProtocolVersion10Test Running org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.SerializationTest Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.009 sec - in org.hibernate.search.test.serialization.SerializationTest Results : Failed tests: ConcurrentServiceTest.concurrentSerialization:51 null