diff --git a/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/command/defaults/HelpCommand.java b/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/command/defaults/HelpCommand.java
index a1699aa93..9c63d9ded 100644
--- a/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/command/defaults/HelpCommand.java
+++ b/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/command/defaults/HelpCommand.java
@@ -143,6 +143,7 @@ public class HelpCommand extends BukkitCommand {
             searchString = searchString.substring(1);
         }
 
+        if (searchString.isEmpty()) return null; // Paper - prevent index out of bounds - nothing matches an empty search string, should have been special cased to defaultTopic earlier, just return null.
         for (HelpTopic topic : Bukkit.getServer().getHelpMap().getHelpTopics()) {
             String trimmedTopic = topic.getName().startsWith("/") ? topic.getName().substring(1) : topic.getName();
 
diff --git a/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/help/IndexHelpTopic.java b/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/help/IndexHelpTopic.java
index 88a812d66..74795eb1a 100644
--- a/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/help/IndexHelpTopic.java
+++ b/paper-api/src/main/java/org/bukkit/help/IndexHelpTopic.java
@@ -49,10 +49,15 @@ public class IndexHelpTopic extends HelpTopic {
         if (sender instanceof ConsoleCommandSender) {
             return true;
         }
-        if (permission == null) {
-            return true;
+        // Paper start - Fix HelpCommand searching - do not show index if no topic is visible to the sender
+        if (permission != null && !sender.hasPermission(permission)) return false; // old spigot permission check
+
+        for (HelpTopic topic : allTopics) {
+            if (topic.canSee(sender)) return true;
         }
-        return sender.hasPermission(permission);
+
+        return false;
+        // Paper end - Fix HelpCommand searching - do not show index if no topic is visible to the sender
     }
 
     @Override