diff --git a/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitAPIController.php b/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitAPIController.php
index 21cca29a0b..7b9ea60e56 100644
--- a/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitAPIController.php
+++ b/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitAPIController.php
@@ -451,7 +451,18 @@ final class PhabricatorConduitAPIController
 
     $params_json = $request->getStr('params');
     if (!strlen($params_json)) {
-      $params = array();
+      if ($request->getBool('allowEmptyParams')) {
+        // TODO: This is a bit messy, but otherwise you can't call
+        // "conduit.ping" from the web console.
+        $params = array();
+      } else {
+        throw new Exception(
+          "Request has no 'params' key. This may mean that an extension like ".
+          "Suhosin has dropped data from the request. Check the PHP ".
+          "configuration on your server. If you are developing a Conduit ".
+          "client, you MUST provide a 'params' parameter when making a ".
+          "Conduit request, even if the value is empty (e.g., provide '{}').");
+      }
     } else {
       $params = json_decode($params_json, true);
       if (!is_array($params)) {
diff --git a/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitConsoleController.php b/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitConsoleController.php
index e8bcc28592..3d0f2c41a0 100644
--- a/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitConsoleController.php
+++ b/src/applications/conduit/controller/PhabricatorConduitConsoleController.php
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ final class PhabricatorConduitConsoleController
     $form
       ->setUser($request->getUser())
       ->setAction('/api/'.$this->method)
+      ->addHiddenInput('allowEmptyParams', 1)
       ->appendChild(
         id(new AphrontFormStaticControl())
           ->setLabel('Description')