diff --git a/common/network-common/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/network/client/TransportResponseHandler.java b/common/network-common/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/network/client/TransportResponseHandler.java
index d27fa08d829bb..870be0b561cad 100644
--- a/common/network-common/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/network/client/TransportResponseHandler.java
+++ b/common/network-common/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/network/client/TransportResponseHandler.java
@@ -247,6 +247,14 @@ public void handle(ResponseMessage message) throws Exception {
           } catch (Exception e) {
             logger.error("Error installing stream handler.", e);
             deactivateStream();
+            try {
+              callback.onFailure(resp.streamId, e);
+            } catch (IOException ioe) {
+              logger.warn("Error in stream failure handler.", ioe);
+            }
+            // Installing the interceptor failed, so incoming data on this channel can no longer
+            // be decoded. Close it so the broken connection is not reused from the pool.
+            channel.close();
           }
         } else {
           try {
diff --git a/common/network-common/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/network/TransportResponseHandlerSuite.java b/common/network-common/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/network/TransportResponseHandlerSuite.java
index ca4bc0a90dfb8..7726e9f9b965c 100644
--- a/common/network-common/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/network/TransportResponseHandlerSuite.java
+++ b/common/network-common/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/network/TransportResponseHandlerSuite.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 
 import io.netty.channel.Channel;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelPipeline;
 import io.netty.channel.local.LocalChannel;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 import org.mockito.ArgumentCaptor;
@@ -171,6 +172,30 @@ public void failOutstandingStreamCallbackOnException() throws Exception {
     verify(cb).onFailure(eq("stream-1"), isA(IOException.class));
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void failStreamCallbackWhenInstallingInterceptorFails() throws Exception {
+    // With no TransportFrameDecoder in the pipeline, the decoder lookup in the StreamResponse
+    // branch returns null and installing the interceptor throws. The handler must fail the
+    // callback (so the caller does not hang) and close the channel rather than reuse a
+    // connection it can no longer decode.
+    Channel c = mock(Channel.class);
+    ChannelPipeline pipeline = mock(ChannelPipeline.class);
+    when(c.pipeline()).thenReturn(pipeline);
+    when(pipeline.get(TransportFrameDecoder.HANDLER_NAME)).thenReturn(null);
+    TransportResponseHandler handler = new TransportResponseHandler(c);
+
+    StreamCallback cb = mock(StreamCallback.class);
+    handler.addStreamCallback("stream", cb);
+    assertEquals(1, handler.numOutstandingRequests());
+
+    // byteCount > 0 so the handler takes the interceptor-installation path.
+    handler.handle(new StreamResponse("stream", 1234L, null));
+
+    verify(cb, times(1)).onFailure(eq("stream"), isA(NullPointerException.class));
+    verify(c, times(1)).close();
+    assertEquals(0, handler.numOutstandingRequests());
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void handleSuccessfulMergedBlockMeta() throws Exception {
     TransportResponseHandler handler = new TransportResponseHandler(new LocalChannel());