From 0e6a0c330438a4b41ab56f85df3b3ed0485d90fb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ryan Schmitt <rschmitt@apache.org>
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2025 18:52:12 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] ConsoleAppender: Fix missing default Target value

---
 .../logging/log4j/core/appender/ConsoleAppender.java |  2 +-
 src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml         | 12 ++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml

diff --git a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/appender/ConsoleAppender.java b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/appender/ConsoleAppender.java
index 1b1bf5e2bdb..d5445456d84 100644
--- a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/appender/ConsoleAppender.java
+++ b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/appender/ConsoleAppender.java
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ public static ConsoleAppender createAppender(
         return newBuilder()
                 .setLayout(layout)
                 .setFilter(filter)
-                .setTarget(target)
+                .setTarget(target == null ? DEFAULT_TARGET : target)
                 .setName(name)
                 .setFollow(follow)
                 .setDirect(direct)
diff --git a/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6e3715942ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<entry xmlns="https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns"
+       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+       xsi:schemaLocation="
+           https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns
+           https://logging.apache.org/xml/ns/log4j-changelog-0.xsd"
+       type="fixed">
+  <issue id="3852" link="https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/3852"/>
+  <description format="asciidoc">
+    Fix missing default Target value in ConsoleAppender.
+  </description>
+</entry>

From b08478d3f1e59288e4f5e194d3db60721421b67a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Volkan=20Yaz=C4=B1c=C4=B1?= <volkan.yazici@oracle.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2025 09:36:57 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Improve changelog typesetting

---
 src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml
index 6e3715942ea..ec4c28297d3 100644
--- a/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml
+++ b/src/changelog/.2.x.x/3852-default-target.xml
@@ -7,6 +7,6 @@
        type="fixed">
   <issue id="3852" link="https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/3852"/>
   <description format="asciidoc">
-    Fix missing default Target value in ConsoleAppender.
+    Fix missing default `Target` value in Console Appender.
   </description>
 </entry>