org.springframework.aop.config.ConfigBeanDefinitionParser.parseAdvisor() doen't check for a missing bean name in an advisor definition. Instead this is done ine the RuntimeBeanReference's constructor which isn't aware of the tooling API's ProblemReporter API. java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: 'beanName' must not be empty at org.springframework.util.Assert.hasText(Assert.java:160) at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.RuntimeBeanReference.<init>(RuntimeBeanReference.java:58) at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.RuntimeBeanReference.<init>(RuntimeBeanReference.java:46) at org.springframework.aop.config.ConfigBeanDefinitionParser.parseAdvisor(ConfigBeanDefinitionParser.java:184) at org.springframework.aop.config.ConfigBeanDefinitionParser.parse(ConfigBeanDefinitionParser.java:146) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport.parse(NamespaceHandlerSupport.java:69) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1114) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1104) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:133) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:90) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:458) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:353) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:303) at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:280)