diff --git a/repository.go b/repository.go
index e8eb53f70..7292df627 100644
--- a/repository.go
+++ b/repository.go
@@ -280,6 +280,9 @@ func dotGitToOSFilesystems(path string, detect bool) (dot, wt billy.Filesystem,
 
 		pathinfo, err := fs.Stat("/")
 		if !os.IsNotExist(err) {
+			if pathinfo == nil {
+				return nil, nil, err
+			}
 			if !pathinfo.IsDir() && detect {
 				fs = osfs.New(filepath.Dir(path))
 			}
diff --git a/repository_test.go b/repository_test.go
index e284df8d6..7a9db151d 100644
--- a/repository_test.go
+++ b/repository_test.go
@@ -2948,6 +2948,11 @@ func (s *RepositorySuite) TestBrokenMultipleShallowFetch(c *C) {
 	c.Assert(err, IsNil)
 }
 
+func (s *RepositorySuite) TestDotGitToOSFilesystemsInvalidPath(c *C) {
+	_, _, err := dotGitToOSFilesystems("\000", false)
+	c.Assert(err, NotNil)
+}
+
 func BenchmarkObjects(b *testing.B) {
 	defer fixtures.Clean()