diff --git a/elasticsearch/x-pack/graph/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/graph/rest/action/RestGraphAction.java b/elasticsearch/x-pack/graph/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/graph/rest/action/RestGraphAction.java
index b4b5c56afe0..6e5a9582af4 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/x-pack/graph/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/graph/rest/action/RestGraphAction.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/x-pack/graph/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/graph/rest/action/RestGraphAction.java
@@ -5,15 +5,6 @@
  */
 package org.elasticsearch.graph.rest.action;
 
-import static org.elasticsearch.graph.action.GraphExploreAction.INSTANCE;
-import static org.elasticsearch.rest.RestRequest.Method.GET;
-import static org.elasticsearch.rest.RestRequest.Method.POST;
-
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.HashSet;
-import java.util.Map;
-
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchParseException;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.support.IndicesOptions;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
@@ -39,6 +30,15 @@ import org.elasticsearch.rest.RestRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.action.support.RestActions;
 import org.elasticsearch.rest.action.support.RestToXContentListener;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import static org.elasticsearch.graph.action.GraphExploreAction.INSTANCE;
+import static org.elasticsearch.rest.RestRequest.Method.GET;
+import static org.elasticsearch.rest.RestRequest.Method.POST;
+
 /**
  * @see GraphExploreRequest
  */
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ public class RestGraphAction extends BaseRestHandler {
                 }
             } else if (token == XContentParser.Token.START_OBJECT) {
                 if (context.getParseFieldMatcher().match(fieldName, QUERY_FIELD)) {
-                    currentHop.guidingQuery(context.parseInnerQueryBuilder());
+                    context.parseInnerQueryBuilder().ifPresent(currentHop::guidingQuery);
                 } else if (context.getParseFieldMatcher().match(fieldName, CONNECTIONS_FIELD)) {
                     parseHop(parser, context, graphRequest.createNextHop(null), graphRequest);
                 } else if (context.getParseFieldMatcher().match(fieldName, CONTROLS_FIELD)) {
diff --git a/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapper.java b/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapper.java
index 1bd5519b0a4..f759543a3b6 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapper.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapper.java
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Optional;
 import java.util.Set;
 
 import static org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanClause.Occur.SHOULD;
@@ -122,9 +123,11 @@ public class ShieldIndexSearcherWrapper extends IndexSearcherWrapper {
                 for (BytesReference bytesReference : permissions.getQueries()) {
                     QueryShardContext queryShardContext = copyQueryShardContext(this.queryShardContext);
                     try (XContentParser parser = XContentFactory.xContent(bytesReference).createParser(bytesReference)) {
-                        QueryBuilder queryBuilder = queryShardContext.newParseContext(parser).parseInnerQueryBuilder();
-                        ParsedQuery parsedQuery = queryShardContext.toQuery(queryBuilder);
-                        filter.add(parsedQuery.query(), SHOULD);
+                        Optional<QueryBuilder> queryBuilder = queryShardContext.newParseContext(parser).parseInnerQueryBuilder();
+                        if (queryBuilder.isPresent()) {
+                            ParsedQuery parsedQuery = queryShardContext.toQuery(queryBuilder.get());
+                            filter.add(parsedQuery.query(), SHOULD);
+                        }
                     }
                 }
                 // at least one of the queries should match
diff --git a/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapperIntegrationTests.java b/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapperIntegrationTests.java
index 2c6fb58c4bc..c65b4a2c0a6 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapperIntegrationTests.java
+++ b/elasticsearch/x-pack/shield/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/authz/accesscontrol/ShieldIndexSearcherWrapperIntegrationTests.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.IndexSettingsModule;
 
 import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.Optional;
 
 import static java.util.Collections.singleton;
 import static java.util.Collections.singletonMap;
@@ -138,7 +139,8 @@ public class ShieldIndexSearcherWrapperIntegrationTests extends ESTestCase {
         for (int i = 0; i < numValues; i++) {
             ParsedQuery parsedQuery = new ParsedQuery(new TermQuery(new Term("field", values[i])));
             when(queryShardContext.newParseContext(any(XContentParser.class))).thenReturn(queryParseContext);
-            when(queryParseContext.parseInnerQueryBuilder()).thenReturn((QueryBuilder) new TermQueryBuilder("field", values[i]));
+            when(queryParseContext.parseInnerQueryBuilder())
+                    .thenReturn(Optional.of((QueryBuilder) new TermQueryBuilder("field", values[i])));
             when(queryShardContext.toQuery(any(QueryBuilder.class))).thenReturn(parsedQuery);
             DirectoryReader wrappedDirectoryReader = wrapper.wrap(directoryReader);
             IndexSearcher indexSearcher = wrapper.wrap(new IndexSearcher(wrappedDirectoryReader));