NullPointerException thrown in the QueryComponent

In case of a distributed search, if we pass invalid query parameters (e.g. negative start value), then Solr returns internal server error (HTTP 500 response) due to following NullPointerException,

{
"responseHeader":{
"status":500,
"QTime":6,
"params":{
"indent":"true",
"start":"-1",
"q":":",
"wt":"json"}},
"error":{
"trace":"java.lang.NullPointerException\n\tat org.apache.solr.handler.component.QueryComponent.mergeIds(QueryComponent.java:1031)\n\tat org.apache.solr.handler.component.QueryComponent.handleRegularResponses(QueryComponent.java:715)\n\tat org.apache.solr.handler.component.QueryComponent.handleResponses(QueryComponent.java:694)\n\tat org.apache.solr.handler.component.SearchHandler.handleRequestBody(SearchHandler.java:324)\n\tat org.apache.solr.handler.RequestHandlerBase.handleRequest(RequestHandlerBase.java:135)\n\tat org.apache.solr.core.SolrCore.execute(SolrCore.java:1984)\n\tat org.apache.solr.servlet.SolrDispatchFilter.execute(SolrDispatchFilter.java:818)\n\tat org.apache.solr.servlet.SolrDispatchFilter.doFilter(SolrDispatchFilter.java:422)\n\tat org.apache.solr.servlet.SolrDispatchFilter.doFilter(SolrDispatchFilter.java:211)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)\n\tat org.apache.solr.servlet.SolrHadoopAuthenticationFilter$2.doFilter(SolrHadoopAuthenticationFilter.java:272)\n\tat org.apache.hadoop.security.authentication.server.AuthenticationFilter.doFilter(AuthenticationFilter.java:592)\n\tat org.apache.hadoop.security.token.delegation.web.DelegationTokenAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(DelegationTokenAuthenticationFilter.java:277)\n\tat org.apache.hadoop.security.authentication.server.AuthenticationFilter.doFilter(AuthenticationFilter.java:555)\n\tat org.apache.solr.servlet.SolrHadoopAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(SolrHadoopAuthenticationFilter.java:277)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)\n\tat org.apache.solr.servlet.HostnameFilter.doFilter(HostnameFilter.java:86)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:103)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)\n\tat org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)\n\tat org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:861)\n\tat org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:606)\n\tat org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:489)\n\tat java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)\n",
"code":500}}

The root cause of this error is that in case of a distributed query, input validation is missing.

(Non distributed version)
https://github.com/apache/lucene-solr/blob/817303840fce547a1557e330e93e5a8ac0618f34/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/QueryComponent.java#L284

(Distributed version)
https://github.com/apache/lucene-solr/blob/817303840fce547a1557e330e93e5a8ac0618f34/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/QueryComponent.java#L691