System.setProperties(null) drops all system properties (RELEASE not set)

FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.8.0-ea"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-ea-b120)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0-b62, mixed mode)

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.1: Thu Sep 19 19:30:57 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2422.50.20~2/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The following test case works on 1.7, passed on ea-b120:

public class TinyTest extends TestCase {
    public void testSetProperties(){
        final String version = System.getProperty("java.version");
        System.setProperties(null);
        assertEquals( version, System.getProperty("java.version"));
    }
}



REGRESSION. Last worked in version 7u45

ACTUAL -
The second call to getProperty returns an empty string ("")

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------

public class TinyTest extends TestCase {
    public void testSetProperties(){
        final String version = System.getProperty("java.version");
        System.setProperties(null);
        assertEquals( version, System.getProperty("java.version"));
    }
}
---------- END SOURCE ----------