1 files changed, 2 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/libbb/unicode.c b/libbb/unicode.c
index 9c4da50d3..d378175a4 100644
--- a/libbb/unicode.c
+++ b/libbb/unicode.c
@@ -1121,6 +1121,8 @@ static char* FAST_FUNC unicode_conv_to_printable2(uni_stat_t *stats, const char
                         dst[dst_len++] = ' ';
                 }
         }
+        if (!dst) /* for example, if input was "" */
+                dst = xzalloc(1);
         dst[dst_len] = '\0';
         if (stats) {
                 stats->byte_count = dst_len;