IOS default native extension packaging null pointer exception

Question

I have an ANE that currently has a specific implementation for Android and a default implementation. Packaging up the .apk for android works fine on my android devices and packaging up a windows destop version (I created a separate desktop air application to do this) that uses the default ANE implementation works fine.
The problem is when trying to packaging the ipa for iOS that uses the ANE. I get the following error when I try a "Export Release Build" of my mobile app for iOS. It should be using the default ANE implementation.
Error occurred while packaging the application:
Warning: Using default implementation for native extension '<my ane extension id here>'
unexpected failure: null
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at com.adobe.png.PNGUtils.updatePNGMetadata(PNGUtils.java:60)
    at com.adobe.air.ipa.IPAOutputStream.addFile(IPAOutputStream.java:557)
    at com.adobe.air.ADTOutputStream.addFileFromStream(ADTOutputStream.java:299)
    at com.adobe.air.ADTOutputStream.addFileFromStream(ADTOutputStream.java:292)
What is missing? I've successfully packaged IPAs before but they didn't use any ANEs. This app will eventually have it's own iOS ANE implementation but it should just use the default if there is no iOS implementation available.
Randy

Answer 1

While using ipa-test-interpreter or ipa-debug-interpreter (and also removing the -platformsdk argument during IPA packaging) fixed ipa-test and ipa-debug builds, it did not fix ipa-ad-hoc or ipa-app-store builds. Our entire build automation system relies on ant based builds, so at the moment using Flex 4.6 and AIR 3.4 is basically out of the question because of the null pointer exception error that eckhoff_randy pointed out above.
Without AIR 3.4 we do not have iOS 6 support (meaning we don't have iPhone 5 support either).
This is a MAJOR problem. I'm not sure that 'waiting until the next release' is an acceptable answer at this point. If possible can you give me as much information as you have on this problem?
Here's what's my output looks like:
[exec] [Fatal Error] :1:1: Content is not allowed in prolog.
[exec] java.io.IOException: PLIST generation failed due to SAX error:org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Content is not allowed in prolog.
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.Plist.newFromString(Plist.java:351)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.Plist.newFromFile(Plist.java:325)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ipa.IPAOutputStream.setSDKVersion(IPAOutputStream.java:1067)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ipa.IPAOutputStream.setPlatformSDKLocation(IPAOutputStream.java:969)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ipa.IPAPackager.setDeviceSDKDirectory(IPAPackager.java:187)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.parseFileAndPathArguments(ADT.java:1423)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.parseDescriptorAndFileset(ADT.java:1474)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.parseInput(ADT.java:929)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.parsePackage(ADT.java:672)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.parseArgsAndGo(ADT.java:570)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.run(ADT.java:419)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.main(ADT.java:469)
[exec] unexpected failure: null
[exec] java.lang.NullPointerException
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ipa.IPAOutputStream.addExtensionAbc(IPAOutputStream.java:1031)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ipa.IPAPackager.addExtensions(IPAPackager.java:351)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ApplicationPackager.createPackage(ApplicationPackager.java:68)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ipa.IPAPackager.createPackage(IPAPackager.java:245)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.parseArgsAndGo(ADT.java:571)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.run(ADT.java:419)
[exec]
at com.adobe.air.ADT.main(ADT.java:469)