diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
index 1062e35a..8ef5496f 100644
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
   * Fix new Java 21 compiler warning: `possible 'this' escape before subclass is fully initialized`.
   * Tweak OSGi bundle manifest to allow Log4j 3.
   * [#362](https://github.com/mwiede/jsch/issues/362) fix PEM key parsing to work with windows line endings.
+  * [#361](https://github.com/mwiede/jsch/issues/361) guard against `UIKeyboardInteractive` implementations that include NULL elements in the `String[]` returned from `promptKeyboardInteractive()`.
 * [0.2.9](https://github.com/mwiede/jsch/releases/tag/jsch-0.2.9)
   * [#293](https://github.com/mwiede/jsch/issues/293) allow UserAuthNone to be extended.
   * Make JGSS module optional.
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/jcraft/jsch/UserAuthKeyboardInteractive.java b/src/main/java/com/jcraft/jsch/UserAuthKeyboardInteractive.java
index c7aff920..cd5d5eda 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/jcraft/jsch/UserAuthKeyboardInteractive.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/jcraft/jsch/UserAuthKeyboardInteractive.java
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ public boolean start(Session session) throws Exception {
               if (_response != null) {
                 response = new byte[_response.length][];
                 for (int i = 0; i < _response.length; i++) {
-                  response[i] = Util.str2byte(_response[i]);
+                  response[i] = _response[i] != null ? Util.str2byte(_response[i]) : Util.empty;
                 }
               }
             }