diff --git a/api/maven-api-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/services/PathSource.java b/api/maven-api-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/services/PathSource.java
index e7b39ac1bef5..4029179f3fd4 100644
--- a/api/maven-api-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/services/PathSource.java
+++ b/api/maven-api-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/services/PathSource.java
@@ -72,6 +72,10 @@ public ModelSource resolve(ModelLocator locator, String relative) {
 
     @Override
     public boolean equals(Object o) {
+        if (o == null) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
         return this == o || o.getClass() == getClass() && Objects.equals(path, ((PathSource) o).path);
     }
 
diff --git a/api/maven-api-core/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/api/services/PathSourceTest.java b/api/maven-api-core/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/api/services/PathSourceTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..19a5efe79a6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/maven-api-core/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/api/services/PathSourceTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.maven.api.services;
+
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertFalse;
+
+class PathSourceTest {
+
+    @Test
+    void testEquals() {
+        PathSource source = new PathSource(Paths.get("/tmp"));
+        assertFalse(source.equals(null));
+    }
+}