diff -ur globus_openldap.shipped/openldap-2.0.22/servers/slapd/schema_init.c globus_openldap/openldap-2.0.22/servers/slapd/schema_init.c
--- globus_openldap.shipped/openldap-2.0.22/servers/slapd/schema_init.c	2002-01-15 19:55:55.000000000 +0100
+++ globus_openldap/openldap-2.0.22/servers/slapd/schema_init.c	2004-11-24 15:52:09.000000000 +0100
@@ -1963,20 +1963,23 @@
 	struct berval *newval;
 	char *p, *q;
 
-	newval = ch_malloc( sizeof( struct berval ) );
-
 	p = val->bv_val;
 
+        if( p == NULL ) {
+                return LDAP_INVALID_SYNTAX;
+        }
+
 	/* Ignore initial whitespace */
 	while ( ASCII_SPACE( *p ) ) {
 		p++;
 	}
 
 	if( *p == '\0' ) {
-		ch_free( newval );
 		return LDAP_INVALID_SYNTAX;
 	}
 
+	newval = ch_malloc( sizeof( struct berval ) );
+
 	newval->bv_val = ch_strdup( p );
 	p = q = newval->bv_val;