diff --git a/data/tests/empty-desc.icc b/data/tests/empty-desc.icc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d05ff6d1
Binary files /dev/null and b/data/tests/empty-desc.icc differ
diff --git a/data/tests/meson.build b/data/tests/meson.build
index 8b38f10e..5630e368 100644
--- a/data/tests/meson.build
+++ b/data/tests/meson.build
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ if get_option('installed_tests')
       'corrupt-dict.icc',
       'crayons.icc',
       'DELL-U2713H.bin',
+      'empty-desc.icc',
       'empty.icc',
       'example.cmf',
       'example.sp',
diff --git a/lib/colord/cd-icc.c b/lib/colord/cd-icc.c
index 7ea5f6e7..b5efee85 100644
--- a/lib/colord/cd-icc.c
+++ b/lib/colord/cd-icc.c
@@ -2619,8 +2619,13 @@ cd_icc_get_mluc_data (CdIcc *icc,
 				   country_code,
 				   NULL,
 				   0);
-	if (text_size == 0)
+	if (text_size == 0) {
+		g_set_error_literal (error,
+				     CD_ICC_ERROR,
+				     CD_ICC_ERROR_NO_DATA,
+				     "cmsSigProfile*Tag is empty");
 		goto out;
+	}
 
 	/* load wide chars */
 	wtext = g_new (gunichar, text_size);
@@ -2629,8 +2634,13 @@ cd_icc_get_mluc_data (CdIcc *icc,
 				   country_code,
 				   (wchar_t *) wtext,
 				   text_size);
-	if (text_size == 0)
+	if (text_size == 0) {
+		g_set_error_literal (error,
+				     CD_ICC_ERROR,
+				     CD_ICC_ERROR_NO_DATA,
+				     "cmsSigProfile*Tag is empty");
 		goto out;
+	}
 
 	/* insert UTF-8 value into locale cache */
 	text_buffer = g_ucs4_to_utf8 (wtext, -1, NULL, NULL, error);
diff --git a/lib/colord/cd-test-private.c b/lib/colord/cd-test-private.c
index 62d6a6c4..ef51ba78 100644
--- a/lib/colord/cd-test-private.c
+++ b/lib/colord/cd-test-private.c
@@ -1446,6 +1446,37 @@ colord_icc_clear_func (void)
 	g_object_unref (icc);
 }
 
+static void
+colord_icc_empty_desc_func (void)
+{
+	CdIcc *icc;
+	const gchar *tmp;
+	gboolean ret;
+	g_autofree gchar *filename = NULL;
+	g_autoptr(GError) error = NULL;
+	g_autoptr(GFile) file = NULL;
+
+	/* empty-desc.icc has a 'desc' (mluc) tag whose single en-US record has
+	 * a string length of zero, so lcms parses it as present-but-empty
+	 * (cmsMLUgetWide() returns 0). Regression test: cd_icc_get_description()
+	 * must return NULL *with* a GError set, never NULL with error==NULL --
+	 * the latter crashed the daemon in cd_main_daemon_method_call() (via
+	 * error->message) when a client loaded the profile with CreateProfile. */
+	icc = cd_icc_new ();
+	filename = cd_test_get_filename ("empty-desc.icc");
+	g_assert (filename != NULL);
+	file = g_file_new_for_path (filename);
+	ret = cd_icc_load_file (icc, file, CD_ICC_LOAD_FLAGS_NONE, NULL, &error);
+	g_assert_no_error (error);
+	g_assert (ret);
+
+	tmp = cd_icc_get_description (icc, NULL, &error);
+	g_assert_error (error, CD_ICC_ERROR, CD_ICC_ERROR_NO_DATA);
+	g_assert_cmpstr (tmp, ==, NULL);
+
+	g_object_unref (icc);
+}
+
 static void
 colord_icc_func (void)
 {
@@ -2410,6 +2441,7 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
 	g_test_add_func ("/colord/icc{characterization}", colord_icc_characterization_func);
 	g_test_add_func ("/colord/icc{save}", colord_icc_save_func);
 	g_test_add_func ("/colord/icc{empty}", colord_icc_empty_func);
+	g_test_add_func ("/colord/icc{empty-desc}", colord_icc_empty_desc_func);
 	g_test_add_func ("/colord/icc{corrupt-dict}", colord_icc_corrupt_dict_func);
 	g_test_add_func ("/colord/icc{clear}", colord_icc_clear_func);
 	g_test_add_func ("/colord/icc{tags}", colord_icc_tags_func);