diff --git a/servers/slapd/modify.c b/servers/slapd/modify.c
index 4a0a87eb9099115c101636f063e5c51fb138cd58..e6ba1dfe4b2aedcf1813af0ca8e777c8e798fbee 100644
--- a/servers/slapd/modify.c
+++ b/servers/slapd/modify.c
@@ -628,6 +628,7 @@ int slap_mods_check(
 							"%s: value #%ld normalization failed",
 							ml->sml_type.bv_val, (long) nvals );
 						*text = textbuf;
+						BER_BVZERO( &ml->sml_nvalues[nvals] );
 						return rc;
 					}
 				}