diff --git a/Ghidra/Features/Base/src/main/java/ghidra/app/util/bin/format/dwarf4/DWARFCompilationUnit.java b/Ghidra/Features/Base/src/main/java/ghidra/app/util/bin/format/dwarf4/DWARFCompilationUnit.java
index 2ed1bfde12..0f15dba673 100644
--- a/Ghidra/Features/Base/src/main/java/ghidra/app/util/bin/format/dwarf4/DWARFCompilationUnit.java
+++ b/Ghidra/Features/Base/src/main/java/ghidra/app/util/bin/format/dwarf4/DWARFCompilationUnit.java
@@ -148,6 +148,7 @@ public class DWARFCompilationUnit {
 		else {
 			format = DWARF_32;
 		}
+
 		long endOffset = (debugInfoBR.getPointerIndex() + length);
 		short version = debugInfoBR.readNextShort();
 		long abbreviationOffset = DWARFUtil.readOffsetByDWARFformat(debugInfoBR, format);
@@ -158,6 +159,14 @@ public class DWARFCompilationUnit {
 			throw new DWARFException(
 				"Only DWARF version 2, 3, or 4 information is currently supported.");
 		}
+		if (firstDIEOffset > endOffset) {
+			throw new IOException("Invalid length " + (endOffset - startOffset) +
+				" for DWARF Compilation Unit at 0x" + Long.toHexString(startOffset));
+		}
+		else if (firstDIEOffset == endOffset) {
+			// silently skip this empty compunit
+			return null;
+		}
 
 		debugAbbrBR.setPointerIndex(abbreviationOffset);
 		Map<Integer, DWARFAbbreviation> abbrMap =