diff --git a/block/qcow2-cluster.c b/block/qcow2-cluster.c
index fb10e26068..2e072ed155 100644
--- a/block/qcow2-cluster.c
+++ b/block/qcow2-cluster.c
@@ -278,6 +278,14 @@ static int l2_allocate(BlockDriverState *bs, int l1_index, uint64_t **table)
         goto fail;
     }
 
+    /* If we're allocating the table at offset 0 then something is wrong */
+    if (l2_offset == 0) {
+        qcow2_signal_corruption(bs, true, -1, -1, "Preventing invalid "
+                                "allocation of L2 table at offset 0");
+        ret = -EIO;
+        goto fail;
+    }
+
     ret = qcow2_cache_flush(bs, s->refcount_block_cache);
     if (ret < 0) {
         goto fail;
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/060 b/tests/qemu-iotests/060
index dead26aeaf..40f85cc216 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/060
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/060
@@ -253,6 +253,13 @@ poke_file "$TEST_IMG" "$rt_offset"        "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"
 # causing a refcount block to be allocated at offset 0
 $QEMU_IO -c "write 0 128k" "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
 
+echo
+echo "=== Testing empty refcount block ==="
+echo
+_make_test_img 64M
+poke_file "$TEST_IMG" "$rb_offset"        "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"
+$QEMU_IO -c "write 0 64k" "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
+
 # success, all done
 echo "*** done"
 rm -f $seq.full
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out
index 872719009c..5b8b518486 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out
@@ -189,4 +189,10 @@ wrote 65536/65536 bytes at offset 0
 64 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
 qcow2: Marking image as corrupt: Preventing invalid allocation of refcount block at offset 0; further corruption events will be suppressed
 write failed: Input/output error
+
+=== Testing empty refcount block ===
+
+Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=67108864
+qcow2: Marking image as corrupt: Preventing invalid allocation of L2 table at offset 0; further corruption events will be suppressed
+write failed: Input/output error
 *** done