diff --git a/src/basic/path-util.c b/src/basic/path-util.c
index eb64c886e6..243771d9e4 100644
--- a/src/basic/path-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/path-util.c
@@ -750,6 +750,9 @@ const char *last_path_component(const char *path) {
 
         unsigned l, k;
 
+        if (!path)
+                return NULL;
+
         l = k = strlen(path);
         if (l == 0) /* special case — an empty string */
                 return path;
diff --git a/src/test/test-path-util.c b/src/test/test-path-util.c
index b5030ea494..dd00f13905 100644
--- a/src/test/test-path-util.c
+++ b/src/test/test-path-util.c
@@ -406,6 +406,7 @@ static void test_file_in_same_dir(void) {
 }
 
 static void test_last_path_component(void) {
+        assert_se(last_path_component(NULL) == NULL);
         assert_se(streq(last_path_component("a/b/c"), "c"));
         assert_se(streq(last_path_component("a/b/c/"), "c/"));
         assert_se(streq(last_path_component("/"), "/"));