diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapper.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapper.java
index f84079fc3f4d2..f319db284b2d2 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapper.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapper.java
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ public Mapper.Builder parse(String name, Map<String, Object> node, ParserContext
 
             if (nullValue != null) {
                 boolean ignoreZValue = builder.ignoreZValue == null ? Defaults.IGNORE_Z_VALUE.value() : builder.ignoreZValue;
-                boolean ignoreMalformed = builder.ignoreMalformed == null ? Defaults.IGNORE_MALFORMED.value() : builder.ignoreZValue;
+                boolean ignoreMalformed = builder.ignoreMalformed == null ? Defaults.IGNORE_MALFORMED.value() : builder.ignoreMalformed;
                 GeoPoint point = GeoUtils.parseGeoPoint(nullValue, ignoreZValue);
                 if (ignoreMalformed == false) {
                     if (point.lat() > 90.0 || point.lat() < -90.0) {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapperTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapperTests.java
index bf6838ec7b67a..3ff6eda1fd7fa 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapperTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/GeoPointFieldMapperTests.java
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
 import static org.elasticsearch.action.support.WriteRequest.RefreshPolicy.IMMEDIATE;
 import static org.elasticsearch.geometry.utils.Geohash.stringEncode;
 import static org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory.jsonBuilder;
+import static org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.GeoPointFieldMapper.Names.IGNORE_MALFORMED;
 import static org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.GeoPointFieldMapper.Names.IGNORE_Z_VALUE;
 import static org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.GeoPointFieldMapper.Names.NULL_VALUE;
 import static org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilders.matchAllQuery;
@@ -427,6 +428,32 @@ public void testNullValue() throws Exception {
         assertThat(defaultValue, not(equalTo(doc.rootDoc().getField("location").binaryValue())));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Test the fix for a bug that would read the value of field "ignore_z_value" for "ignore_malformed"
+     * when setting the "null_value" field. See PR https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/pull/49645
+     */
+    public void testNullValueWithIgnoreMalformed() throws Exception {
+        // Set ignore_z_value = false and ignore_malformed = true and test that a malformed point for null_value is normalized.
+        String mapping = Strings.toString(XContentFactory.jsonBuilder()
+            .startObject().startObject("type")
+                .startObject("properties").startObject("location")
+                    .field("type", "geo_point")
+                    .field(IGNORE_Z_VALUE.getPreferredName(), false)
+                    .field(IGNORE_MALFORMED, true)
+                    .field(NULL_VALUE, "91,181")
+                .endObject().endObject()
+            .endObject().endObject());
+
+        DocumentMapper defaultMapper = createIndex("test").mapperService().documentMapperParser()
+            .parse("type", new CompressedXContent(mapping));
+        Mapper fieldMapper = defaultMapper.mappers().getMapper("location");
+        assertThat(fieldMapper, instanceOf(GeoPointFieldMapper.class));
+
+        Object nullValue = ((GeoPointFieldMapper) fieldMapper).fieldType().nullValue();
+        // geo_point [91, 181] should have been normalized to [89, 1]
+        assertThat(nullValue, equalTo(new GeoPoint(89, 1)));
+    }
+
     public void testInvalidGeohashIgnored() throws Exception {
         String mapping = Strings.toString(XContentFactory.jsonBuilder().startObject().startObject("type")
             .startObject("properties")