diff --git a/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c b/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c
index 37b433aa730610..7147a4e49167db 100644
--- a/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c
+++ b/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c
@@ -1514,7 +1514,7 @@ static int nldev_newlink(struct sk_buff *skb, struct nlmsghdr *nlh,
 
 	nla_strlcpy(ibdev_name, tb[RDMA_NLDEV_ATTR_DEV_NAME],
 		    sizeof(ibdev_name));
-	if (strchr(ibdev_name, '%'))
+	if (strchr(ibdev_name, '%') || strlen(ibdev_name) == 0)
 		return -EINVAL;
 
 	nla_strlcpy(type, tb[RDMA_NLDEV_ATTR_LINK_TYPE], sizeof(type));