diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/nfs/nfs3/RpcProgramNfs3.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/nfs/nfs3/RpcProgramNfs3.java
index 533fa220774..488cd0df2da 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/nfs/nfs3/RpcProgramNfs3.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/nfs/nfs3/RpcProgramNfs3.java
@@ -1829,7 +1829,8 @@ public class RpcProgramNfs3 extends RpcProgram implements Nfs3Interface {
       } catch (IOException e1) {
         LOG.info("Can't get postOpAttr for fileId: " + handle.getFileId());
       }
-      WccData fileWcc = new WccData(Nfs3Utils.getWccAttr(preOpAttr), postOpAttr);
+      WccData fileWcc = new WccData(preOpAttr == null ? null
+          : Nfs3Utils.getWccAttr(preOpAttr), postOpAttr);
       return new COMMIT3Response(Nfs3Status.NFS3ERR_IO, fileWcc,
           Nfs3Constant.WRITE_COMMIT_VERF);
     }
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 51dd15a6abf..a1ad7458747 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-5941. add dfs.namenode.secondary.https-address and
     dfs.namenode.secondary.https-address in hdfs-default.xml.
     (Haohui Mai via cnauroth)
+
+    HDFS-5913. Nfs3Utils#getWccAttr() should check attr parameter against null
+    (brandonli)
  
 Release 2.3.1 - UNRELEASED