While attempting to configure a CA on RHEL5.2, I forgot to enter an email address in the Administration Panel of the Configuration Wizard.  I received the following problem:

VelocityServlet: Error processing the template

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.netscape.certsrv.util.HttpInput.getEmail(HttpInput.java:267)
	at com.netscape.cms.servlet.csadmin.AdminPanel.validate(AdminPanel.java:198)
	at com.netscape.cms.servlet.wizard.WizardServlet.goNextApply(WizardServlet.java:313)
	at com.netscape.cms.servlet.wizard.WizardServlet.goNext(WizardServlet.java:294)
	at com.netscape.cms.servlet.wizard.WizardServlet.handleRequest(WizardServlet.java:470)
	at org.apache.velocity.servlet.VelocityServlet.doRequest(VelocityServlet.java:358)
	at org.apache.velocity.servlet.VelocityServlet.doPost(VelocityServlet.java:327)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:710)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:803)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:269)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:210)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:172)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:117)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:542)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:108)
	at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:151)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:870)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:665)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:528)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:81)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:685)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:636)

In the file common/src/com/netscape/certsrv/util/HttpInput.java, the NULL pointer exception comes from attempting to parse an empty "name" value:

   public static String getEmail(HttpServletRequest request, String name)
        throws IOException
    {
        String v = getString(request, name);
        if (v.indexOf('@') == -1) {
           throw new IOException("Invalid email " + v);
        }
        return v;
    }

Code should be placed in the panel to disallow a user from ever going to the code in the first place.