[13.x] Guard Job::payload() against corrupt JSON

[sumaiazaman]

Summary

Job::payload() calls json_decode($this->getRawBody(), true) which returns null when the raw body is malformed or empty JSON. Multiple callers — getName(), maxTries(), maxExceptions(), retryUntil(), resolveName() — then perform array-access on null, which either triggers a PHP warning or a null-coalescing fallback that returns null unexpectedly.

Context

Scenario	Before	After
Valid JSON body	✅ Returns decoded array	✅ Returns decoded array
Malformed JSON body	❌ Returns null → crashes callers	✅ Returns []
Empty body	❌ Returns null → crashes callers	✅ Returns []

Solution

Add a ?? [] null-coalescing fallback to the return value of payload():

// Before
public function payload()
{
    return json_decode($this->getRawBody(), true);
}

// After
public function payload()
{
    return json_decode($this->getRawBody(), true) ?? [];
}

This is the minimal, safe fix — all callers already use ?? for optional keys ($this->payload()['maxTries'] ?? null), so returning [] instead of null means they naturally return null without any risk of crashing.

Safety

• No change in behavior for valid JSON payloads.
• Corrupt-payload jobs already cannot be dispatched normally; this prevents a secondary crash when the worker encounters one.
• No new exceptions are thrown — the behavior is strictly safer.

Changes

• src/Illuminate/Queue/Jobs/Job.php — add ?? [] to payload() return
• tests/Queue/QueueJobTest.php — new tests covering valid JSON, corrupt JSON, and empty body

Test Plan

• php vendor/bin/phpunit tests/Queue/QueueJobTest.php — 4 tests, 4 assertions, all green