diff --git a/lib/mpi/mpicoder.c b/lib/mpi/mpicoder.c
index fe84bb978e3b5c42befda57c206edd0b68d61684..716802b774ea9a92d58828cb1d7e99356098016b 100644
--- a/lib/mpi/mpicoder.c
+++ b/lib/mpi/mpicoder.c
@@ -255,6 +255,8 @@ void *mpi_get_buffer(MPI a, unsigned *nbytes, int *sign)
 	if (!n)
 		n++;		/* avoid zero length allocation */
 	p = buffer = kmalloc(n, GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!p)
+		return NULL;
 
 	for (i = a->nlimbs - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
 		alimb = a->d[i];