diff --git a/src/btf_dump.c b/src/btf_dump.c
index 4d9f30bf7f01438e47fdfa7dc8a94b51acfe80e1..84467f10a0ae13a621b258eab13f45d4b4500880 100644
--- a/src/btf_dump.c
+++ b/src/btf_dump.c
@@ -224,6 +224,8 @@ static void btf_dump_free_names(struct hashmap *map)
 {
 	size_t bkt;
 	struct hashmap_entry *cur;
+	if (!map)
+		return;
 
 	hashmap__for_each_entry(map, cur, bkt)
 		free((void *)cur->pkey);