diff --git a/src/share/classes/java/net/URL.java b/src/share/classes/java/net/URL.java
index be6c294d191588c49e493d8ecce2f678b36b38e2..bbe87b62722cc6e6899f18bfaa36545dd4c97df1 100644
--- a/src/share/classes/java/net/URL.java
+++ b/src/share/classes/java/net/URL.java
@@ -428,6 +428,16 @@ public final class URL implements java.io.Serializable {
                 throw new MalformedURLException(s);
             }
         }
+        if ("jar".equalsIgnoreCase(protocol)) {
+            if (handler instanceof sun.net.www.protocol.jar.Handler) {
+                // URL.openConnection() would throw a confusing exception
+                // so generate a better exception here instead.
+                String s = ((sun.net.www.protocol.jar.Handler) handler).checkNestedProtocol(file);
+                if (s != null) {
+                    throw new MalformedURLException(s);
+                }
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/share/classes/sun/net/www/protocol/jar/Handler.java b/src/share/classes/sun/net/www/protocol/jar/Handler.java
index 8e9f8e3a35f2c9403295ad0aafd4fe151d41f5fb..4a3ae7e8aebe2d7c9e24d2c632c1b48cec99a7e4 100644
--- a/src/share/classes/sun/net/www/protocol/jar/Handler.java
+++ b/src/share/classes/sun/net/www/protocol/jar/Handler.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 1997, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 1997, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
  *
  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -121,6 +121,13 @@ public class Handler extends java.net.URLStreamHandler {
         return h;
     }
 
+    public String checkNestedProtocol(String spec) {
+        if (spec.regionMatches(true, 0, "jar:", 0, 4)) {
+            return "Nested JAR URLs are not supported";
+        } else {
+            return null;
+        }
+    }
 
     @Override
     @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
@@ -147,6 +154,12 @@ public class Handler extends java.net.URLStreamHandler {
         }
         spec = spec.substring(start, limit);
 
+        String exceptionMessage = checkNestedProtocol(spec);
+        if (exceptionMessage != null) {
+            // NPE will be transformed into MalformedURLException by the caller
+            throw new NullPointerException(exceptionMessage);
+        }
+
         if (absoluteSpec) {
             file = parseAbsoluteSpec(spec);
         } else if (!refOnly) {