diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 594aa133..0c108c64 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ v0.81.4		23-Oct-2005
 	libmbse.a:
 		Added some forgotten client/server encoding.
 
+	mbtask:
+		Fixed crashing mbtask on receiving empty coded loglines.
+
 
 v0.81.3		17-Oct-2005 - 23-Oct-2005
 
diff --git a/lib/clcomm.c b/lib/clcomm.c
index 1fe4ca4b..cc259101 100644
--- a/lib/clcomm.c
+++ b/lib/clcomm.c
@@ -559,8 +559,8 @@ char *cldecode(char *s)
     char    *p, *q;
     int	    i;
 
-    if (s == NULL) {
-	return NULL;
+    if ((s == NULL) || (! strlen(s))) {
+	return (char *)"";
     }
 
     for (p = s, q = s; *p; p++) {
diff --git a/mbtask/taskutil.c b/mbtask/taskutil.c
index 266b9520..fdd9acc0 100644
--- a/mbtask/taskutil.c
+++ b/mbtask/taskutil.c
@@ -667,8 +667,8 @@ char *cldecode(char *s)
     char    *p, *q;
     int     i;
 
-    if (s == NULL) {
-	return NULL;
+    if ((s == NULL) || (! strlen(s))) {
+	return (char *)"";
     }
 
     for (p = s, q = s; *p; p++) {