You can also replicate this issue by simply providing bad user or pw as stated in JBIDE-8356 1. have an ec2 cloud 2. open launch instance wizard 3. create new key , but do not store the private part to your local disk 4. enable creating RSE connection, hit Finish 5. After instance is launched, RSE is connecting. It asks for password (enter anyhing) Currently: It takes 5minutes to fihish connecting . In the end an error with NPE is reported. Expected: Error is reported, but it says that the credentials were not valid.