diff --git a/command/init_test.go b/command/init_test.go
index 761a0774d8..7aadb0f0f0 100644
--- a/command/init_test.go
+++ b/command/init_test.go
@@ -1310,3 +1310,33 @@ func TestInit_012UpgradeNeededInAutomation(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("looks like we incorrectly gave an upgrade command to run:\n%s", output)
 	}
 }
+
+func TestInit_syntaxErrorVersionSniff(t *testing.T) {
+	// Create a temporary working directory that is empty
+	td := tempDir(t)
+	copy.CopyDir(testFixturePath("init-sniff-version-error"), td)
+	defer os.RemoveAll(td)
+	defer testChdir(t, td)()
+
+	ui := new(cli.MockUi)
+	c := &InitCommand{
+		Meta: Meta{
+			testingOverrides: metaOverridesForProvider(testProvider()),
+			Ui:               ui,
+		},
+	}
+
+	args := []string{}
+	if code := c.Run(args); code != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("bad: \n%s", ui.ErrorWriter.String())
+	}
+
+	// Check output.
+	// Currently, this lands in the "upgrade may be needed" codepath, because
+	// the intentional syntax error in our test fixture is something that
+	// "terraform 0.12upgrade" could fix.
+	output := ui.OutputWriter.String()
+	if got, want := output, "Terraform has initialized, but configuration upgrades may be needed"; !strings.Contains(got, want) {
+		t.Fatalf("wrong output\ngot:\n%s\n\nwant: message containing %q", got, want)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/command/test-fixtures/init-sniff-version-error/init-sniff-version-error.tf b/command/test-fixtures/init-sniff-version-error/init-sniff-version-error.tf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d797e5144e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/command/test-fixtures/init-sniff-version-error/init-sniff-version-error.tf
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# The following is invalid because we don't permit multiple nested blocks
+# all one one line. Instead, we require the backend block to be on a line
+# of its own.
+# The purpose of this test case is to see that HCL still produces a valid-enough
+# AST that we can try to sniff in this block for a terraform_version argument
+# without crashing, since we do that during init to try to give a better
+# error message if we detect that the configuration is for a newer Terraform
+# version.
+terraform { backend "local" {} }
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index bd44121861..be7227c129 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/hashicorp/go-version v1.1.0
 	github.com/hashicorp/golang-lru v0.5.0 // indirect
 	github.com/hashicorp/hcl v0.0.0-20170504190234-a4b07c25de5f
-	github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190503210054-6e4ec17113ca
+	github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190514214226-6a61d80ae3d0
 	github.com/hashicorp/hil v0.0.0-20190212112733-ab17b08d6590
 	github.com/hashicorp/logutils v1.0.0
 	github.com/hashicorp/memberlist v0.1.0 // indirect
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 8475b5e0a7..fd433aa087 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -204,8 +204,8 @@ github.com/hashicorp/golang-lru v0.5.0/go.mod h1:/m3WP610KZHVQ1SGc6re/UDhFvYD7pJ
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl v0.0.0-20170504190234-a4b07c25de5f h1:UdxlrJz4JOnY8W+DbLISwf2B8WXEolNRA8BGCwI9jws=
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl v0.0.0-20170504190234-a4b07c25de5f/go.mod h1:oZtUIOe8dh44I2q6ScRibXws4Ajl+d+nod3AaR9vL5w=
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20181208003705-670926858200/go.mod h1:ShfpTh661oAaxo7VcNxg0zcZW6jvMa7Moy2oFx7e5dE=
-github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190503210054-6e4ec17113ca h1:roLn75Q2QkZE1V3kitKaOazz0INIj53v4OlH4kJzWbA=
-github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190503210054-6e4ec17113ca/go.mod h1:4oI94iqF3GB10QScn46WqbG0kgTUpha97SAzzg2+2ec=
+github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190514214226-6a61d80ae3d0 h1:5Hbw6YJOLDh8XV2z9woGJHyCpCthyYmaG6i97/jvw2g=
+github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190514214226-6a61d80ae3d0/go.mod h1:4oI94iqF3GB10QScn46WqbG0kgTUpha97SAzzg2+2ec=
 github.com/hashicorp/hil v0.0.0-20190212112733-ab17b08d6590 h1:2yzhWGdgQUWZUCNK+AoO35V+HTsgEmcM4J9IkArh7PI=
 github.com/hashicorp/hil v0.0.0-20190212112733-ab17b08d6590/go.mod h1:n2TSygSNwsLJ76m8qFXTSc7beTb+auJxYdqrnoqwZWE=
 github.com/hashicorp/logutils v1.0.0 h1:dLEQVugN8vlakKOUE3ihGLTZJRB4j+M2cdTm/ORI65Y=
diff --git a/vendor/github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl/hclsyntax/parser.go b/vendor/github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl/hclsyntax/parser.go
index 551360298f..253ad5031a 100644
--- a/vendor/github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl/hclsyntax/parser.go
+++ b/vendor/github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl/hclsyntax/parser.go
@@ -417,6 +417,17 @@ Token:
 		p.recoverAfterBodyItem()
 	}
 
+	// We must never produce a nil body, since the caller may attempt to
+	// do analysis of a partial result when there's an error, so we'll
+	// insert a placeholder if we otherwise failed to produce a valid
+	// body due to one of the syntax error paths above.
+	if body == nil && diags.HasErrors() {
+		body = &Body{
+			SrcRange: hcl.RangeBetween(oBrace.Range, cBraceRange),
+			EndRange: cBraceRange,
+		}
+	}
+
 	return &Block{
 		Type:   blockType,
 		Labels: labels,
diff --git a/vendor/modules.txt b/vendor/modules.txt
index d6d3ce9342..3a63335733 100644
--- a/vendor/modules.txt
+++ b/vendor/modules.txt
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ github.com/hashicorp/hcl/hcl/scanner
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl/hcl/strconv
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl/json/scanner
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl/json/token
-# github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190503210054-6e4ec17113ca
+# github.com/hashicorp/hcl2 v0.0.0-20190514214226-6a61d80ae3d0
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcl/hclsyntax
 github.com/hashicorp/hcl2/hcldec