diff --git a/artemis-cli/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/artemis/cli/factory/security/SecurityManagerHandler.java b/artemis-cli/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/artemis/cli/factory/security/SecurityManagerHandler.java
index 604d61b97d..4c1e10b2d3 100644
--- a/artemis-cli/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/artemis/cli/factory/security/SecurityManagerHandler.java
+++ b/artemis-cli/src/main/java/org/apache/activemq/artemis/cli/factory/security/SecurityManagerHandler.java
@@ -34,8 +34,10 @@ public class SecurityManagerHandler implements SecurityHandler {
       SecurityManagerDTO customSecurity = (SecurityManagerDTO) security;
       String clazz = customSecurity.className;
       Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<>();
-      for (PropertyDTO property : customSecurity.properties) {
-         properties.put(property.key, property.value);
+      if (customSecurity.properties != null) {
+         for (PropertyDTO property : customSecurity.properties) {
+            properties.put(property.key, property.value);
+         }
       }
       return AccessController.doPrivileged((PrivilegedAction<ActiveMQSecurityManager>) () -> (ActiveMQSecurityManager) ClassloadingUtil.newInstanceFromClassLoader(SecurityManagerHandler.class, clazz)).init(properties);
    }
diff --git a/artemis-cli/src/test/java/org/apache/activemq/SecurityManagerHandlerTest.java b/artemis-cli/src/test/java/org/apache/activemq/SecurityManagerHandlerTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ce216a2e38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/artemis-cli/src/test/java/org/apache/activemq/SecurityManagerHandlerTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.activemq;
+
+import org.apache.activemq.artemis.cli.factory.security.SecurityManagerHandler;
+import org.apache.activemq.artemis.dto.SecurityManagerDTO;
+import org.apache.activemq.artemis.spi.core.security.ActiveMQBasicSecurityManager;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class SecurityManagerHandlerTest {
+
+   @Test
+   public void testSecurityManagerHandler() {
+      SecurityManagerDTO securityManagerDTO = new SecurityManagerDTO();
+      securityManagerDTO.className = ActiveMQBasicSecurityManager.class.getName();
+      new SecurityManagerHandler().createSecurityManager(securityManagerDTO);
+   }
+}