diff --git a/libavformat/rtspdec.c b/libavformat/rtspdec.c
index 74a7bf646f..af20465783 100644
--- a/libavformat/rtspdec.c
+++ b/libavformat/rtspdec.c
@@ -360,6 +360,10 @@ static inline int parse_command_line(AVFormatContext *s, const char *line,
     RTSPState *rt = s->priv_data;
     const char *linept, *searchlinept;
     linept = strchr(line, ' ');
+    if (!linept) {
+        av_log(s, AV_LOG_ERROR, "Error parsing method string\n");
+        return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
+    }
     if (linept - line > methodsize - 1) {
         av_log(s, AV_LOG_ERROR, "Method string too long\n");
         return AVERROR(EIO);