When trying to release a Maven component or application (via the Perform Maven Release link), the following error is generated:

Status Code: 500

Exception: java.lang.ClassCastException: net.sf.json.JSONNull cannot be cast to net.sf.json.JSONObject
Stacktrace:
javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.ClassCastException: net.sf.json.JSONNull cannot be cast to net.sf.json.JSONObject
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:719)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:770)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.MetaClass$12.dispatch(MetaClass.java:384)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:677)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:770)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.MetaClass$6.doDispatch(MetaClass.java:241)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.NameBasedDispatcher.dispatch(NameBasedDispatcher.java:53)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:677)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:770)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.MetaClass$6.doDispatch(MetaClass.java:241)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.NameBasedDispatcher.dispatch(NameBasedDispatcher.java:53)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:677)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:770)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:583)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.service(Stapler.java:214)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:304)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:95)
at net.bull.javamelody.MonitoringFilter.doFilter(MonitoringFilter.java:206)
at net.bull.javamelody.MonitoringFilter.doFilter(MonitoringFilter.java:179)
at net.bull.javamelody.PluginMonitoringFilter.doFilter(PluginMonitoringFilter.java:86)
at org.jvnet.hudson.plugins.monitoring.HudsonMonitoringFilter.doFilter(HudsonMonitoringFilter.java:84)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:98)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:87)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at hudson.security.csrf.CrumbFilter.doFilter(CrumbFilter.java:48)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:84)
at hudson.security.UnwrapSecurityExceptionFilter.doFilter(UnwrapSecurityExceptionFilter.java:51)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at org.acegisecurity.ui.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:124)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at org.acegisecurity.providers.anonymous.AnonymousProcessingFilter.doFilter(AnonymousProcessingFilter.java:125)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at org.acegisecurity.ui.rememberme.RememberMeProcessingFilter.doFilter(RememberMeProcessingFilter.java:142)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at org.acegisecurity.ui.AbstractProcessingFilter.doFilter(AbstractProcessingFilter.java:271)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at org.acegisecurity.ui.basicauth.BasicProcessingFilter.doFilter(BasicProcessingFilter.java:174)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at jenkins.security.ApiTokenFilter.doFilter(ApiTokenFilter.java:64)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at org.acegisecurity.context.HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter.doFilter(HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter.java:249)
at hudson.security.HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter2.doFilter(HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter2.java:66)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:76)
at hudson.security.HudsonFilter.doFilter(HudsonFilter.java:164)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.compression.CompressionFilter.doFilter(CompressionFilter.java:50)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at hudson.util.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:81)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:224)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:169)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:168)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:100)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:929)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:405)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:964)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:515)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AprEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(AprEndpoint.java:1824)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: net.sf.json.JSONNull cannot be cast to net.sf.json.JSONObject
at org.jvnet.hudson.plugins.m2release.M2ReleaseAction.doSubmit(M2ReleaseAction.java:239)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Function$InstanceFunction.invoke(Function.java:288)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Function.bindAndInvoke(Function.java:151)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Function.bindAndInvokeAndServeResponse(Function.java:90)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.MetaClass$1.doDispatch(MetaClass.java:111)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.NameBasedDispatcher.dispatch(NameBasedDispatcher.java:53)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:677)
... 71 more

This problem was introduced in the 1.506 release. After rolling back to the 1.505 release, the problem goes away.