diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a9216baf..3a925b2b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ Developers may need to change their code
 
 ### Corrected Bugs
 
+* Fixed: Segv in canonical xpath transform
 * Fixed: [Error with submodules and feature Interaction](https://github.com/clicon/clixon-controller/issues/158)
 * Fixed: [Expansion removes the double quote](https://github.com/clicon/clixon/issues/524)
   *  Add escaping in expand_dbvar instead of automatic in cligen expand
diff --git a/lib/src/clixon_xpath.c b/lib/src/clixon_xpath.c
index 6367ac50..9078c3da 100644
--- a/lib/src/clixon_xpath.c
+++ b/lib/src/clixon_xpath.c
@@ -1112,7 +1112,7 @@ xpath_traverse_canonical(xpath_tree *xs,
                 free(xs->xs_s0);
                 xs->xs_s0 = NULL;
             }
-            if ((xs->xs_s0 = strdup(prefix1)) == NULL){
+            if (prefix1 && (xs->xs_s0 = strdup(prefix1)) == NULL){
                 clixon_err(OE_UNIX, errno, "strdup");
                 goto done;
             }