diff --git a/changelog.html b/changelog.html
index 7b9e2a7555dbcbdcf62aa4460d34b89798f7acf4..0cfe9f90e88749e9ec0c73eab68ddd870b326c40 100644
--- a/changelog.html
+++ b/changelog.html
@@ -58,6 +58,9 @@ Upcoming changes</a>
   <li class=bug>
     Fixed another possible cause of an NPE from MatrixConfiguration.newBuild.
     (<a href="https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-17728">issue 17728</a>)
+  <li class=bug>
+    NPE in MavenFingerprinter.getArtifactRepositoryMaven21.
+    (<a href="https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-18441">issue 18441</a>)
 </ul>
 </div><!--=TRUNK-END=-->
 
diff --git a/maven-plugin/src/main/java/hudson/maven/reporters/MavenFingerprinter.java b/maven-plugin/src/main/java/hudson/maven/reporters/MavenFingerprinter.java
index d884a77ea8e4e62ffb96c1d95f1aee0260664eb2..65092ed20c952170300b695282f185770b59489f 100644
--- a/maven-plugin/src/main/java/hudson/maven/reporters/MavenFingerprinter.java
+++ b/maven-plugin/src/main/java/hudson/maven/reporters/MavenFingerprinter.java
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ public class MavenFingerprinter extends MavenReporter {
             // this maven 2 object via reflection
             Method method = MavenProject.class.getMethod("getProjectBuilderConfiguration");
             projectBuilderConfiguration = (ProjectBuilderConfiguration) method.invoke(pom);
+            if (projectBuilderConfiguration == null) {
+                return null;
+            }
             return projectBuilderConfiguration.getLocalRepository();
         } catch (Exception e) {
             LOGGER.log(Level.WARNING, "Could not retrieve BuilderConfigration", e);