diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 43bdf3c48..ed52bdc96 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -97,6 +97,9 @@
    - markus@cvs.openbsd.org 2002/03/19 14:27:39
      [auth.c auth1.c auth2.c]
      make getpwnamallow() allways call pwcopy()
+   - markus@cvs.openbsd.org 2002/03/19 15:31:47
+     [auth.c]
+     check for NULL; from provos@
 
 20020317
  - (tim) [configure.ac] Assume path given with --with-pid-dir=PATH is wanted,
@@ -7943,4 +7946,4 @@
  - Wrote replacements for strlcpy and mkdtemp
  - Released 1.0pre1
 
-$Id: ChangeLog,v 1.1952 2002/03/22 03:04:08 mouring Exp $
+$Id: ChangeLog,v 1.1953 2002/03/22 03:08:30 mouring Exp $
diff --git a/auth.c b/auth.c
index f368faf21..a9f981d18 100644
--- a/auth.c
+++ b/auth.c
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
  */
 
 #include "includes.h"
-RCSID("$OpenBSD: auth.c,v 1.40 2002/03/19 14:27:39 markus Exp $");
+RCSID("$OpenBSD: auth.c,v 1.41 2002/03/19 15:31:47 markus Exp $");
 
 #ifdef HAVE_LOGIN_H
 #include <login.h>
@@ -470,5 +470,7 @@ getpwnamallow(const char *user)
 		auth_close(as);
 #endif
 #endif
-	return (pwcopy(pw));
+	if (pw != NULL)
+		return (pwcopy(pw));
+	return (NULL);
 }