Issue

All the jobs using the same credential started failing simultaneously. The failing jobs are showing errors like the one shown below:

java.lang.NullPointerException
    at jenkins.security.ConfidentialStore.get(ConfidentialStore.java:67)
    at jenkins.security.ConfidentialKey.load(ConfidentialKey.java:47)
    at jenkins.security.CryptoConfidentialKey.getKey(CryptoConfidentialKey.java:41)
    at jenkins.security.CryptoConfidentialKey.decrypt(CryptoConfidentialKey.java:134)
    at hudson.util.HistoricalSecrets.decrypt(HistoricalSecrets.java:49)
    at hudson.util.Secret.decrypt(Secret.java:207)
    at hudson.util.Secret.fromString(Secret.java:249)
    ...
    ...
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.p4.client.AuthorisationConfig.<init>(AuthorisationConfig.java:27)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.p4.client.ConnectionHelper.<init>(ConnectionHelper.java:94)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.p4.client.ClientHelper.<init>(ClientHelper.java:99)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.p4.tasks.AbstractTask.getConnection(AbstractTask.java:181)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.p4.tasks.AbstractTask.tryTask(AbstractTask.java:207)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.p4.tasks.CheckoutTask.invoke(CheckoutTask.java:114)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.p4.tasks.CheckoutTask.invoke(CheckoutTask.java:26)

Environment

• CloudBees Core on modern cloud platforms - Managed Master
• CloudBees Core on traditional platforms - Client Master
• CloudBees Jenkins Enterprise
• CloudBees Jenkins Enterprise - Managed Master
• CloudBees Jenkins Platform - Client Master
• CloudBees Jenkins Distribution
• Jenkins LTS

Resolution

The error is coming from a known issue in the P4 plugin: JENKINS-51632, under certain conditions the plugin was not resolving correctly the credentials and that caused an exception. The most common cause for this scenario to happen is the usage of special characters in the credentials password.

In order to solve the issue you should upgrade the P4 plugin at least to version 1.9.5.

Workaround

Change the credentials password so that they do not use any special characters.

Tested product/plugin versions

• CloudBees Core on traditional platforms - Client Master 2.89.4.2
• P4 plugin 1.8.10