diff --git a/jetty-websocket/websocket-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/websocket/client/XmlBasedHttpClientProvider.java b/jetty-websocket/websocket-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/websocket/client/XmlBasedHttpClientProvider.java
index bcdf08a81c8..44b21f01e33 100644
--- a/jetty-websocket/websocket-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/websocket/client/XmlBasedHttpClientProvider.java
+++ b/jetty-websocket/websocket-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/websocket/client/XmlBasedHttpClientProvider.java
@@ -34,7 +34,11 @@ class XmlBasedHttpClientProvider
 
     public static HttpClient get(@SuppressWarnings("unused") WebSocketContainerScope scope)
     {
-        URL resource = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource("jetty-websocket-httpclient.xml");
+        ClassLoader contextClassLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
+        if (contextClassLoader == null)
+            return null;
+
+        URL resource = contextClassLoader.getResource("jetty-websocket-httpclient.xml");
         if (resource == null)
             return null;