diff --git a/fs/cifs/sess.c b/fs/cifs/sess.c
index 2e2c91103529..645114ad0a10 100644
--- a/fs/cifs/sess.c
+++ b/fs/cifs/sess.c
@@ -916,7 +916,9 @@ ssetup_ntlmssp_authenticate:
 	}
 
 	/* BB check if Unicode and decode strings */
-	if (smb_buf->Flags2 & SMBFLG2_UNICODE) {
+	if (bytes_remaining == 0) {
+		/* no string area to decode, do nothing */
+	} else if (smb_buf->Flags2 & SMBFLG2_UNICODE) {
 		/* unicode string area must be word-aligned */
 		if (((unsigned long) bcc_ptr - (unsigned long) smb_buf) % 2) {
 			++bcc_ptr;