If the description of a project is empty when using the Projects gadget on the dashboard you will receive an internal server error - IF you set the View to Detailed. The Collapsed and Brief views do not have this issue.

The problem is at: com.atlassian.jira.gadgets.system.ProjectGadgetResource.getProjectDataNoPermissionCheck(ProjectGadgetResource.java:386)

if ((showStats) && (project.getDescription().trim().length() != 0))

{ projectDescription = project.getDescription(); showDescription = true; }

The getDescription() method should be checked for null before calling the .trim() method.