diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS b/CONTRIBUTORS
index a533fb8b9..4a10c42b4 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ Jesse Glick
 Jesse Stockall
 Jim Allers
 Joerg Wassmer
+Joel Tucci
 Joey Richey
 Johann Herunter
 John Elion
diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index ab0212420..6ebed1eca 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ Fixed bugs:
  * TarArchiveInputStream could throw IOException when reading PAX
    headers from a "slow" InputStream.
 
+ * XMLJunitResultFormatter could throw NullPointerException if Java
+   cannot determine the local hostname.
+   Bugzilla Report 56593
 
 Other changes:
 --------------
diff --git a/contributors.xml b/contributors.xml
index 488d784e4..a86950aff 100644
--- a/contributors.xml
+++ b/contributors.xml
@@ -751,6 +751,10 @@
     <first>Joerg</first>
     <last>Wassmer</last>
   </name>
+  <name>
+    <first>Joel</first>
+    <last>Tucci</last>
+  </name>
   <name>
     <first>Joey</first>
     <last>Richey</last>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/junit/XMLJUnitResultFormatter.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/junit/XMLJUnitResultFormatter.java
index 4ff3ab1cd..7f064f963 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/junit/XMLJUnitResultFormatter.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/junit/XMLJUnitResultFormatter.java
@@ -161,11 +161,15 @@ public class XMLJUnitResultFormatter implements JUnitResultFormatter, XMLConstan
      * @return the name of the local host, or "localhost" if we cannot work it out
      */
     private String getHostname()  {
+        String hostname = "localhost";
         try {
-            return InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostName();
+            InetAddress localHost = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
+            if (localHost != null) {
+                hostname = localHost.getHostName();
+            }
         } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
-            return "localhost";
         }
+        return hostname;
     }
 
     /**