diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_ioctl.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_ioctl.c
index 335fad8b209a..73dcf03e7e8c 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_ioctl.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_ioctl.c
@@ -439,6 +439,12 @@ static int drm_copy_field(char __user *buf, size_t *buf_len, const char *value)
 {
 	size_t len;
 
+	/* don't attempt to copy a NULL pointer */
+	if (WARN_ONCE(!value, "BUG: the value to copy was not set!")) {
+		*buf_len = 0;
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	/* don't overflow userbuf */
 	len = strlen(value);
 	if (len > *buf_len)