diff --git a/src/main/java/com/hierynomus/sshj/userauth/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyV1KeyFile.java b/src/main/java/com/hierynomus/sshj/userauth/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyV1KeyFile.java
index 15348bac9..a9d6eb554 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/hierynomus/sshj/userauth/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyV1KeyFile.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/hierynomus/sshj/userauth/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyV1KeyFile.java
@@ -218,6 +218,9 @@ private boolean checkHeader(final BufferedReader reader) throws IOException {
         while (line != null && !line.startsWith(BEGIN)) {
             line = reader.readLine();
         }
+        if (line == null) {
+            return false;
+        }
         line = line.substring(BEGIN.length());
         return line.startsWith(OPENSSH_PRIVATE_KEY);
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/net/schmizz/sshj/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyFileTest.java b/src/test/java/net/schmizz/sshj/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyFileTest.java
index d406198cf..3ebfe1644 100644
--- a/src/test/java/net/schmizz/sshj/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyFileTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/net/schmizz/sshj/keyprovider/OpenSSHKeyFileTest.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
+import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.math.BigInteger;
 import java.security.GeneralSecurityException;
 import java.security.PrivateKey;
@@ -443,6 +444,14 @@ public void notTrimmedKeys() throws IOException {
                      corruptedKeyFile.getPublic());
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void emptyPrivateKey() {
+        FileKeyProvider keyProvider = new OpenSSHKeyV1KeyFile();
+        keyProvider.init(new StringReader(""));
+
+        assertThrows("This key is not in 'openssh-key-v1' format", IOException.class, keyProvider::getPrivate);
+    }
+
     @Before
     public void checkBCRegistration() {
         if (!SecurityUtils.isBouncyCastleRegistered()) {