diff --git a/include/linux/ceph/buffer.h b/include/linux/ceph/buffer.h
index 5e58bb29b1a3..11cdc7c60480 100644
--- a/include/linux/ceph/buffer.h
+++ b/include/linux/ceph/buffer.h
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ static inline struct ceph_buffer *ceph_buffer_get(struct ceph_buffer *b)
 
 static inline void ceph_buffer_put(struct ceph_buffer *b)
 {
-	kref_put(&b->kref, ceph_buffer_release);
+	if (b)
+		kref_put(&b->kref, ceph_buffer_release);
 }
 
 extern int ceph_decode_buffer(struct ceph_buffer **b, void **p, void *end);