diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/client/HttpFSUtils.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/client/HttpFSUtils.java
index fcc7bab15e..bd9baaa93f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/client/HttpFSUtils.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/client/HttpFSUtils.java
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
+import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
+
 /**
  * Utility methods used by HttpFS classes.
  */
@@ -127,8 +129,17 @@ static URL createURL(Path path, Map<String, String> params, Map<String,
    * @throws IOException thrown if the <code>InputStream</code> could not be
    * JSON parsed.
    */
-  static Object jsonParse(HttpURLConnection conn) throws IOException {
+  public static Object jsonParse(HttpURLConnection conn) throws IOException {
     try {
+      String contentType = conn.getContentType();
+      if (contentType != null) {
+        final MediaType parsed = MediaType.valueOf(contentType);
+        if (!MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_TYPE.isCompatible(parsed)) {
+          throw new IOException("Content-Type \"" + contentType
+              + "\" is incompatible with \"" + MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON
+              + "\" (parsed=\"" + parsed + "\")");
+        }
+      }
       JSONParser parser = new JSONParser();
       return parser.parse(
           new InputStreamReader(conn.getInputStream(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/server/TestHttpFSServer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/server/TestHttpFSServer.java
index ae7e2c42ae..a5bbb92f21 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/server/TestHttpFSServer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-httpfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/http/server/TestHttpFSServer.java
@@ -70,6 +70,8 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FsServerDefaults;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.XAttrCodec;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.http.client.HttpFSUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.http.client.HttpFSFileSystem.Operation;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.http.server.HttpFSParametersProvider.DataParam;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.http.server.HttpFSParametersProvider.NoRedirectParam;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.permission.AclEntry;
@@ -88,6 +90,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.token.Token;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.HFSTestCase;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.HadoopUsersConfTestHelper;
+import org.apache.hadoop.test.LambdaTestUtils;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.TestDir;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.TestDirHelper;
 import org.apache.hadoop.test.TestHdfs;
@@ -1880,4 +1883,32 @@ public void testNoRedirectWithData() throws Exception {
     Assert.assertEquals(TestJettyHelper.getJettyURL() + "/webhdfs/v1" + path,
         location);
   }
+
+  @Test
+  @TestDir
+  @TestJetty
+  @TestHdfs
+  public void testContentType() throws Exception {
+    createHttpFSServer(false, false);
+    FileSystem fs = FileSystem.get(TestHdfsHelper.getHdfsConf());
+    Path dir = new Path("/tmp");
+    Path file = new Path(dir, "foo");
+    fs.mkdirs(dir);
+    fs.create(file);
+
+    String user = HadoopUsersConfTestHelper.getHadoopUsers()[0];
+    URL url = new URL(TestJettyHelper.getJettyURL(), MessageFormat.format(
+        "/webhdfs/v1/tmp/foo?user.name={0}&op=open&offset=1&length=2", user));
+
+    // test jsonParse with non-json type.
+    final HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
+    conn.setRequestMethod(Operation.OPEN.getMethod());
+    conn.connect();
+
+    LambdaTestUtils.intercept(IOException.class,
+        "Content-Type \"text/html;charset=iso-8859-1\" "
+            + "is incompatible with \"application/json\"",
+        () -> HttpFSUtils.jsonParse(conn));
+    conn.disconnect();
+  }
 }