diff --git a/src/common_auth.cpp b/src/common_auth.cpp
index dd54772..1584e48 100644
--- a/src/common_auth.cpp
+++ b/src/common_auth.cpp
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ char* s3fs_base64(unsigned char* input, size_t length)
   static const char* base = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=";
   char* result;
 
-  if(!input || '\0' == input[0] || 0 >= length){
+  if(!input || 0 >= length){
     return NULL;
   }
   if(NULL == (result = (char*)malloc((((length / 3) + 1) * 4 + 1) * sizeof(char)))){