diff --git a/attr.c b/attr.c
index 300f994ba6e283..a2e0775f7e50d0 100644
--- a/attr.c
+++ b/attr.c
@@ -865,7 +865,8 @@ static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_index(struct index_state *istate,
 		stack = read_attr_from_blob(istate, &istate->cache[sparse_dir_pos]->oid, relative_path, flags);
 	} else {
 		buf = read_blob_data_from_index(istate, path, &size);
-		stack = read_attr_from_buf(buf, size, path, flags);
+		if (buf)
+			stack = read_attr_from_buf(buf, size, path, flags);
 	}
 	return stack;
 }