There is an implicit assumption in the code that neither plugin names nor update center ids contain a period. See https://github.com/jenkinsci/jenkins/blob/jenkins-1.553/core/src/main/java/hudson/PluginManager.java#L687

Sample stack trace:

Status Code: 500
Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException
Stacktrace:

javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:735)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:799)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.MetaClass$3.doDispatch(MetaClass.java:173)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.NameBasedDispatcher.dispatch(NameBasedDispatcher.java:53)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.tryInvoke(Stapler.java:685)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:799)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.invoke(Stapler.java:587)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler.service(Stapler.java:218)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:95)
at net.bull.javamelody.MonitoringFilter.doFilter(MonitoringFilter.java:208)
at net.bull.javamelody.MonitoringFilter.doFilter(MonitoringFilter.java:181)
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 com.cloudbees.jenkins.support.SupportMetricsFilter.doFilter(SupportMetricsFilter.java:80)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:98)
at hudson.plugins.greenballs.GreenBallFilter.doFilter(GreenBallFilter.java:58)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:98)
at hudson.security.UnwrapSecurityExceptionFilter.doFilter(UnwrapSecurityExceptionFilter.java:51)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:98)
at org.jenkinsci.plugins.suppress_stack_trace.SuppressionFilter.doFilter(SuppressionFilter.java:33)
at hudson.util.PluginServletFilter$1.doFilter(PluginServletFilter.java:98)
at com.cloudbees.jenkins.ha.HAHealthCheckFilter.doFilter(HAHealthCheckFilter.java:44)
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:235)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at hudson.security.csrf.CrumbFilter.doFilter(CrumbFilter.java:48)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
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$1.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:87)
at hudson.security.ChainedServletFilter.doFilter(ChainedServletFilter.java:76)
at hudson.security.HudsonFilter.doFilter(HudsonFilter.java:164)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.compression.CompressionFilter.doFilter(CompressionFilter.java:46)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at hudson.util.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:81)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:433)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at hudson.PluginManager.doInstall(PluginManager.java:691)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Function$InstanceFunction.invoke(Function.java:297)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Function.bindAndInvoke(Function.java:160)
at org.kohsuke.stapler.Function.bindAndInvokeAndServeResponse(Function.java:95)
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:685)
... 71 more

Generated by Stapler at Mon Mar 03 17:21:19 CET 2014