diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 60e19e4441f..aefd1290270 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 ## [1.9.0] - Unreleased
 
+- Added: [#5893](https://github.com/ethereum/aleth/pull/5893) testeth: RlpTests treat empty `out` field as invalid.
 - Added: [#5868](https://github.com/ethereum/aleth/pull/5868) `test_importRawBlock` RPC method reports the detailed reason when import fails.
 - Removed: [#5885](https://github.com/ethereum/aleth/pull/5885) Discontinue `testeth --filltests` support for BlockchainTests, TransitionTests, BCGeneralStateTests.
 
diff --git a/test/jsontests b/test/jsontests
index f2863bf5cbf..7497b116a01 160000
--- a/test/jsontests
+++ b/test/jsontests
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit f2863bf5cbfcdd6e561aa9651bab3c18fbc0074b
+Subproject commit 7497b116a019beb26215cbea4028df068dea06be
diff --git a/test/tools/jsontests/RLPTests.cpp b/test/tools/jsontests/RLPTests.cpp
index 51719eb511b..96ee6afd3ea 100644
--- a/test/tools/jsontests/RLPTests.cpp
+++ b/test/tools/jsontests/RLPTests.cpp
@@ -87,6 +87,10 @@ void doRlpTests(json_spirit::mValue const& _input)
             bytes payloadToDecode = fromHex(o.at("out").get_str());
             RLP payload(payloadToDecode);
 
+            // treat null rlp as invalid
+            if (payload.isNull())
+                BOOST_THROW_EXCEPTION(Exception() << errinfo_comment("RLPTests: field `out` is set to Null"));
+
             // attempt to read all the contents of RLP
             ostringstream() << payload;