diff --git a/libavfilter/asrc_aevalsrc.c b/libavfilter/asrc_aevalsrc.c
index 7bd6a89eb3..63fe9164b4 100644
--- a/libavfilter/asrc_aevalsrc.c
+++ b/libavfilter/asrc_aevalsrc.c
@@ -95,6 +95,12 @@ static int init(AVFilterContext *ctx, const char *args, void *opaque)
     eval->class = &eval_class;
     av_opt_set_defaults(eval);
 
+    if (!args1) {
+        av_log(ctx, AV_LOG_ERROR, "Argument is empty\n");
+        ret = args ? AVERROR(ENOMEM) : AVERROR(EINVAL);
+        goto end;
+    }
+
     /* parse expressions */
     buf = args1;
     i = 0;