You can also get this cryptic error if you try to access the log4j2 configuration file using http instead of https. I added log4j2.debug=true and my log showed I was trying to load configuration via http, not https. If you must load via http, then add this export: "-Dlog4j2.Configuration.allowedProtocols=https,http" See page How to allow log4j-2.17.2 to download configuarion via HTTP? for details.