diff --git a/common/xmalloc.c b/common/xmalloc.c
index 999ec00f8..3378e487b 100644
--- a/common/xmalloc.c
+++ b/common/xmalloc.c
@@ -47,7 +47,15 @@ out_of_core(void)
 void *
 xmalloc( size_t n )
 {
-    void *p = malloc( n );
+    void *p;
+
+    /* Make sure that xmalloc (0) works.  This is the same behaviour
+       has in gpg 2.x.  Note that in contrast to this code, Libgcrypt
+       (and thus most xmallocs in gpg 2.x) detect the !n and bail out.  */
+    if (!n)
+      n = 1;
+
+    p = malloc( n );
     if( !p )
 	out_of_core();
     return p;
@@ -65,7 +73,14 @@ xrealloc( void *a, size_t n )
 void *
 xcalloc( size_t n, size_t m )
 {
-    void *p = calloc( n, m );
+    void *p;
+
+    if (!n)
+      n = 1;
+    if (!m)
+      m = 1;
+
+    p = calloc( n, m );
     if( !p )
 	out_of_core();
     return p;
diff --git a/g10/getkey.c b/g10/getkey.c
index 458672a09..707a106e4 100644
--- a/g10/getkey.c
+++ b/g10/getkey.c
@@ -2775,7 +2775,10 @@ get_user_id (u32 * keyid, size_t * rn)
 	    {
 	      if (a->keyid[0] == keyid[0] && a->keyid[1] == keyid[1])
 		{
-		  p = xmalloc (r->len);
+                  /* An empty string as user id is possible.  Make
+                     sure that the malloc allocates one byte and does
+                     not bail out.  */
+		  p = xmalloc (r->len? r->len : 1);
 		  memcpy (p, r->name, r->len);
 		  *rn = r->len;
 		  return p;