diff --git a/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c b/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c
index b7e2b4a0f3c6..c6c41a7836c9 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c
@@ -1121,7 +1121,7 @@ static int ppp_nl_newlink(struct net *src_net, struct net_device *dev,
 	 * the PPP unit identifer as suffix (i.e. ppp<unit_id>). This allows
 	 * userspace to infer the device name using to the PPPIOCGUNIT ioctl.
 	 */
-	if (!tb[IFLA_IFNAME])
+	if (!tb[IFLA_IFNAME] || !nla_len(tb[IFLA_IFNAME]) || !*(char *)nla_data(tb[IFLA_IFNAME]))
 		conf.ifname_is_set = false;
 
 	err = ppp_dev_configure(src_net, dev, &conf);