diff --git a/src/client/hooks.cpp b/src/client/hooks.cpp
index 004a60f4f258afb09979ea79a2854c6834c24f6c..7fdabf78faabc0f1c9880dd1c284ffea804857fd 100644
--- a/src/client/hooks.cpp
+++ b/src/client/hooks.cpp
@@ -203,11 +203,6 @@ hook_fstatat(int dirfd, const char* cpath, struct stat* buf, int flags) {
     LOG(DEBUG, "{}() called with path: \"{}\", fd: {}, buf: {}, flags: {}",
         __func__, cpath, dirfd, fmt::ptr(buf), flags);
 
-    if(flags & AT_EMPTY_PATH) {
-        LOG(ERROR, "{}() AT_EMPTY_PATH flag not supported", __func__);
-        return -ENOTSUP;
-    }
-
     std::string resolved;
     auto rstatus = CTX->relativize_fd_path(dirfd, cpath, resolved);
     switch(rstatus) {
diff --git a/src/client/preload_context.cpp b/src/client/preload_context.cpp
index f076360b345cfd41aa970aea5bd8564d90ab6e90..f31d6f7cdf910d105de79429fe5d3f9fc1c78b4f 100644
--- a/src/client/preload_context.cpp
+++ b/src/client/preload_context.cpp
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ PreloadContext::relativize_fd_path(int dirfd, const char* raw_path,
 
     std::string path;
 
-    if(raw_path[0] != gkfs::path::separator) {
+    if(raw_path != nullptr && raw_path[0] != gkfs::path::separator) {
         // path is relative
         if(dirfd == AT_FDCWD) {
             // path is relative to cwd
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ PreloadContext::relativize_path(const char* raw_path,
 
     std::string path;
 
-    if(raw_path[0] != gkfs::path::separator) {
+    if(raw_path != nullptr && raw_path[0] != gkfs::path::separator) {
         /* Path is not absolute, we need to prepend CWD;
          * First reserve enough space to minimize memory copy
          */
@@ -251,6 +251,7 @@ PreloadContext::relativize_path(const char* raw_path,
     } else {
         path = raw_path;
     }
+
     return gkfs::path::resolve(path, relative_path, resolve_last_link);
 }