diff --git a/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScm.java b/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScm.java
index b9630a6..22ed936 100644
--- a/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScm.java
+++ b/src/main/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScm.java
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.InvalidPathException;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
@@ -950,10 +951,13 @@ public void checkout(
 		build.addAction(manifestAction);
 	}
 
-	private void abortIfUrlLocal() throws AbortException {
-		if (StringUtils.isNotEmpty(manifestRepositoryUrl)
-				&& (manifestRepositoryUrl.toLowerCase(Locale.ENGLISH).startsWith("file://")
-				|| Files.exists(Paths.get(manifestRepositoryUrl)))) {
+	/**
+	 * Throws an {@link AbortException} if {@link #manifestRepositoryUrl} references a local file.
+	 *
+	 * @throws AbortException if {@link #manifestRepositoryUrl} references a local file
+	 */
+	void abortIfUrlLocal() throws AbortException {
+		if (!isValidRepositoryUrl(manifestRepositoryUrl)) {
 			throw new AbortException("Checkout of Repo url '" + manifestRepositoryUrl
 					+ "' aborted because it references a local directory, "
 					+ "which may be insecure. "
@@ -962,6 +966,20 @@ private void abortIfUrlLocal() throws AbortException {
 		}
 	}
 
+	private static boolean isValidRepositoryUrl(final String url) {
+		if (StringUtils.isEmpty(url)) {
+			return true;
+		} else if (url.toLowerCase(Locale.ENGLISH).startsWith("file://")) {
+			return false;
+		}
+		try {
+			// Check for local URLs with no protocol like /path/to/repo
+			return !Files.exists(Paths.get(url));
+		} catch (InvalidPathException e) {
+			return true;
+		}
+	}
+
 	private int doSync(final Launcher launcher, @Nonnull final FilePath workspace,
 			final OutputStream logger, final EnvVars env)
 		throws IOException, InterruptedException {
diff --git a/src/test/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScmTest.java b/src/test/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScmTest.java
index 88527aa..2496a6c 100644
--- a/src/test/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScmTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/hudson/plugins/repo/RepoScmTest.java
@@ -1,13 +1,16 @@
 package hudson.plugins.repo;
 
+import hudson.AbortException;
 import hudson.model.FreeStyleProject;
 import hudson.tasks.Shell;
 import org.junit.Rule;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.jvnet.hudson.test.Issue;
 import org.jvnet.hudson.test.JenkinsRule;
 
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
 /**
  * {@link JenkinsRule} based tests for {@link RepoScm}
@@ -31,4 +34,15 @@ public void configRoundTrip() throws Exception {
         assertTrue(scm.isCleanFirst());
         assertEquals(manifestRepositoryUrl, scm.getManifestRepositoryUrl());
     }
+
+    @Issue("JENKINS-68562")
+    @Test
+    public void abortIfUrlLocal() throws Exception {
+        final String manifestRepositoryUrl = "https://gerrit/projects/platform.git";
+        try {
+            new RepoScm(manifestRepositoryUrl).abortIfUrlLocal();
+        } catch (AbortException e) {
+            fail("https manifest URLs should always be valid");
+        }
+    }
 }