diff --git a/libcomposefs/lcfs-writer.c b/libcomposefs/lcfs-writer.c
index f6e202e6..6e675b0a 100644
--- a/libcomposefs/lcfs-writer.c
+++ b/libcomposefs/lcfs-writer.c
@@ -1691,7 +1691,7 @@ int lcfs_node_set_xattr_internal(struct lcfs_node_s *node, const char *name,
 	char *k, *v;
 
 	const size_t namelen = strlen(name);
-	if (namelen > XATTR_NAME_MAX) {
+	if (namelen == 0 || namelen > XATTR_NAME_MAX) {
 		errno = ERANGE;
 		return -1;
 	}
diff --git a/tests/assets/should-fail-empty-xattr-key.dump b/tests/assets/should-fail-empty-xattr-key.dump
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..52a9d7d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/assets/should-fail-empty-xattr-key.dump
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+/ 4096 40555 2 0 0 0 1633950376.0 - - -
+/noxattr-key 0 100644 1 0 0 0 0.0 - - - =somevalue
diff --git a/tests/meson.build b/tests/meson.build
index 58f98750..30277c4e 100644
--- a/tests/meson.build
+++ b/tests/meson.build
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ test_assets_small_extra = [
 
 test_assets_should_fail = [
   'should-fail-long-link.dump',
+  'should-fail-empty-xattr-key.dump',
   'should-fail-long-xattr-key.dump',
   'should-fail-long-xattr-value.dump',
   'should-fail-honggfuzz-long-xattr.dump',