diff --git a/ripd/ChangeLog b/ripd/ChangeLog
index ecf353d0da..60baef5d0c 100644
--- a/ripd/ChangeLog
+++ b/ripd/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2008-05-29 Stephen Hemminger <stephen.hemminger@vyatta.com>
+
+	* ripd.c: (rip_auth_md5) fix bogus empty string test
+
 2008-03-13 Paul Jakma <paul.jakma@sun.com>
 
 	* ripd.c/rip_interface.c: Remove 0 entries from rip_msg 
diff --git a/ripd/ripd.c b/ripd/ripd.c
index c5e427057e..62d8691ccd 100644
--- a/ripd/ripd.c
+++ b/ripd/ripd.c
@@ -926,7 +926,7 @@ rip_auth_md5 (struct rip_packet *packet, struct sockaddr_in *from,
   else if (ri->auth_str)
     strncpy (auth_str, ri->auth_str, RIP_AUTH_MD5_SIZE);
 
-  if (! auth_str)
+  if (auth_str[0] == 0)
     return 0;
   
   /* MD5 digest authentication. */