diff --git a/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c b/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c
index ba76709897bb..42e9b5f41a40 100644
--- a/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c
+++ b/drivers/infiniband/core/nldev.c
@@ -917,6 +917,10 @@ static int nldev_set_doit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct nlmsghdr *nlh,
 
 		nla_strlcpy(name, tb[RDMA_NLDEV_ATTR_DEV_NAME],
 			    IB_DEVICE_NAME_MAX);
+		if (strlen(name) == 0) {
+			err = -EINVAL;
+			goto done;
+		}
 		err = ib_device_rename(device, name);
 		goto done;
 	}
@@ -1513,7 +1517,7 @@ 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));