XMPPConnection crashing with NullpointerException

From what I’ve found through google, and through my own usage of Smack,

for some time XMPPConnections login method (using username and password)

results in a NullpointerException, when Smack is used to connect to other servers but Openfire.

This is what the Stacktrace looks like:

java.lang.NullPointerException     at org.jivesoftware.smack.util.Base64.encodeBytes(Base64.java:638)     at org.jivesoftware.smack.sasl.SASLMechanism.challengeReceived(SASLMechanism.java:152)     at org.jivesoftware.smack.SASLAuthentication.challengeReceived(SASLAuthentication.java:492)     at org.jivesoftware.smack.PacketReader.parsePackets(PacketReader.java:338)     at org.jivesoftware.smack.PacketReader.access$0(PacketReader.java:266)     at org.jivesoftware.smack.PacketReader$1.run(PacketReader.java:76)

From what I could figure out, the point is, that Base64.encodeBytes needs a byte[] passed,

but gets null from SASLMechanism.challengeReceived.

This Problem is easily fixed by adding the following small check into line 634 org.jivesoftware.smack.util.Base64.encodeBytes(byte[] source, int options) :

public static String encodeBytes( byte[] source, int options )
    {
         if(source == null)
              source = new byte[0];
        return encodeBytes( source, 0, source.length, options );
    }   // end encodeBytes

I was just wondering if there is a particular reason for this issue being open for some time now,

and how or if I can help fixing it; For I believe it bothers some people.

Thanks for your time