diff --git a/src/detect-http-cookie.c b/src/detect-http-cookie.c
index ba496ade77..0cfaf99e33 100644
--- a/src/detect-http-cookie.c
+++ b/src/detect-http-cookie.c
@@ -75,6 +75,10 @@ int DetectHttpCookieMatch (ThreadVars *t, DetectEngineThreadCtx *det_ctx,
         return 0;
     }
 
+    if (htp_state->connp->conn == NULL) {
+        SCLogDebug("HTTP connection structure is NULL");
+        return 0;
+    }
     int ret = 0;
     SCMutexLock(&f->m);
     htp_tx_t *tx = list_get(htp_state->connp->conn->transactions, 0);