diff --git a/gdb/ChangeLog b/gdb/ChangeLog
index ff5a5380d84..270fdc7a020 100644
--- a/gdb/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2018-12-21  Paul Marechal  <paul.marechal@ericsson.com>
+
+	PR gdb/23974
+	* target.c (target_read_stralloc): Check for empty vector.
+
 2018-12-19  Sangamesh Mallayya <sangamesh.swamy@in.ibm.com>
 
 	PR gdb/23999:
diff --git a/gdb/target.c b/gdb/target.c
index f88444fa254..f9c5b0a8b55 100644
--- a/gdb/target.c
+++ b/gdb/target.c
@@ -1875,7 +1875,7 @@ target_read_stralloc (struct target_ops *ops, enum target_object object,
   if (!buf)
     return {};
 
-  if (buf->back () != '\0')
+  if (buf->empty () || buf->back () != '\0')
     buf->push_back ('\0');
 
   /* Check for embedded NUL bytes; but allow trailing NULs.  */
diff --git a/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog b/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog
index a5e0a4fae28..7f2739082f9 100644
--- a/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/testsuite/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2018-12-21  Paul Marechal  <paul.marechal@ericsson.com>
+
+	PR gdb/23974
+	* gdb.base/info-os.exp: Check return for unknown "info os" type.
+
 2018-11-21  Benno Fünfstück  <benno.fuenfstueck@gmail.com>
 
 	PR python/23714
diff --git a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/info-os.exp b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/info-os.exp
index 8d7eab9c530..c44e6b27c38 100644
--- a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/info-os.exp
+++ b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/info-os.exp
@@ -175,6 +175,9 @@ expect_multiline "info os semaphores" "$semkey +$semid +666 +1 .*" "get semaphor
 #                               key   msqid   perm  num used bytes  num messages  last msgsnd() command  last msgrcv() command  user  group  creator user  creator group  last msgsnd() time  last msgrcv() time  last msgctl() time
 expect_multiline "info os msg" "$msgkey +$msqid +666 .*" "get message queues"
 
+gdb_test "info os unknown_entry" [multi_line \
+	"warning: Empty data returned by target.  Wrong osdata type\\\?" \
+	"Can not fetch data now."]
 
 # The SysV IPC primitives linger on after the creating process is killed
 # unless they are destroyed explicitly, so allow the test program to tidy