The following code block will throw a NullPointerException when targetComponentValues should be determines and target[i] contains a NULL value.

else if ( types[i].isComponentType() ) {
// need to extract the component values and check for subtype replacements...
AbstractComponentType componentType = ( AbstractComponentType ) types[i];
Type[] subtypes = componentType.getSubtypes();
Object[] origComponentValues = original[i] == null ? new Object[subtypes.length] : componentType.getPropertyValues( original[i], session );
Object[] targetComponentValues = componentType.getPropertyValues( target[i], session );
replaceAssociations( origComponentValues, targetComponentValues, subtypes, session, null, copyCache, foreignKeyDirection );


This problem can be fixed the same way as it is prevented when origComponentValues are determined (see following line)
Object[] targetComponentValues = target[i] == null ? new Object[subtypes.length] : componentType.getPropertyValues( target[i], session );
copied[i] = target[i];
}


The problem did not exist in Version 3.2.2