diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/struts2/components/Include.java b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/struts2/components/Include.java
index f8decac25f..039b4b03eb 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/struts2/components/Include.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/struts2/components/Include.java
@@ -47,7 +47,8 @@
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
-import java.util.Stack;
+import java.util.ArrayDeque;
+import java.util.Deque;
 import java.util.StringTokenizer;
 
 /**
@@ -203,7 +204,7 @@ public static String getContextRelativePath(ServletRequest request, String relat
         // .. is illegal in an absolute path according to the Servlet Spec and will cause
         // known problems on Orion application servers.
         if (returnValue.contains("..")) {
-            Stack<String> stack = new Stack<>();
+            Deque<String> segments = new ArrayDeque<>();
             StringTokenizer pathParts = new StringTokenizer(returnValue.replace('\\', '/'), "/");
 
             while (pathParts.hasMoreTokens()) {
@@ -211,20 +212,22 @@ public static String getContextRelativePath(ServletRequest request, String relat
 
                 if (!part.equals(".")) {
                     if (part.equals("..")) {
-                        stack.pop();
+                        if (!segments.isEmpty()) {
+                            segments.pop();
+                        }
                     } else {
-                        stack.push(part);
+                        segments.push(part);
                     }
                 }
             }
 
             StringBuilder flatPathBuffer = new StringBuilder();
 
-            for (int i = 0; i < stack.size(); i++) {
-                flatPathBuffer.append("/").append(stack.elementAt(i));
+            for (String segment : segments) {
+                flatPathBuffer.append("/").append(segment);
             }
 
-            returnValue = flatPathBuffer.toString();
+            returnValue = flatPathBuffer.length() > 0 ? flatPathBuffer.toString() : "/";
         }
 
         return returnValue;
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/apache/struts2/views/jsp/IncludeTagTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/struts2/views/jsp/IncludeTagTest.java
index 7ca1daf127..9ca0587e3e 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/apache/struts2/views/jsp/IncludeTagTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/struts2/views/jsp/IncludeTagTest.java
@@ -220,6 +220,18 @@ public void testIncludeRelative2Dots_clearTagStateSet() throws Exception {
                 strutsBodyTagsAreReflectionEqual(tag, freshTag));
     }
 
+    public void testGetContextRelativePathExcessDotDot() {
+        // Excess ".." segments beyond root should be silently clamped, not throw EmptyStackException
+        String result = Include.getContextRelativePath(request, "/../../../other/resource.jsp");
+        assertEquals("/other/resource.jsp", result);
+    }
+
+    public void testGetContextRelativePathAllDotDot() {
+        // All segments are ".." - should resolve to root
+        String result = Include.getContextRelativePath(request, "/a/../../..");
+        assertEquals("/", result);
+    }
+
     public void testIncludeSetUseResponseEncodingTrue() throws Exception {
         // TODO: If possible in future mock-test an actual content-includes with various encodings
         //   while setting the response encoding to match.  Doesn't appear to be possible