diff --git a/app/test/test_malloc.c b/app/test/test_malloc.c
index 40a2f500cd..71b3cfdde5 100644
--- a/app/test/test_malloc.c
+++ b/app/test/test_malloc.c
@@ -846,6 +846,18 @@ test_malloc_bad_params(void)
 	if (bad_ptr != NULL)
 		goto err_return;
 
+	/* rte_malloc expected to return null with size will cause overflow */
+	align = RTE_CACHE_LINE_SIZE;
+	size = (size_t)-8;
+
+	bad_ptr = rte_malloc(type, size, align);
+	if (bad_ptr != NULL)
+		goto err_return;
+
+	bad_ptr = rte_realloc(NULL, size, align);
+	if (bad_ptr != NULL)
+		goto err_return;
+
 	return 0;
 
 err_return:
diff --git a/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_heap.c b/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_heap.c
index 842eb9de75..bd5065698d 100644
--- a/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_heap.c
+++ b/lib/librte_eal/common/malloc_heap.c
@@ -241,6 +241,9 @@ heap_alloc(struct malloc_heap *heap, const char *type __rte_unused, size_t size,
 	size = RTE_CACHE_LINE_ROUNDUP(size);
 	align = RTE_CACHE_LINE_ROUNDUP(align);
 
+	/* roundup might cause an overflow */
+	if (size == 0)
+		return NULL;
 	elem = find_suitable_element(heap, size, flags, align, bound, contig);
 	if (elem != NULL) {
 		elem = malloc_elem_alloc(elem, size, align, bound, contig);