diff --git a/lib/ssluse.c b/lib/ssluse.c
index 0b98ba0b6e61a4e43c6d8f92acecd4b21ca42ff3..07824b411852413094bf0a2b5cc87112b6cc18d9 100644
--- a/lib/ssluse.c
+++ b/lib/ssluse.c
@@ -1178,7 +1178,7 @@ static CURLcode verifyhost(struct connectdata *conn,
         else /* not a UTF8 name */
           j = ASN1_STRING_to_UTF8(&peer_CN, tmp);
 
-        if((int)strlen((char *)peer_CN) != j) {
+        if(peer_CN && ((int)strlen((char *)peer_CN) != j)) {
           /* there was a terminating zero before the end of string, this
              cannot match and we return failure! */
           failf(data, "SSL: illegal cert name field");