diff --git a/src/detect-http-header.c b/src/detect-http-header.c
index 56c4d8e82e..31dbec39a5 100644
--- a/src/detect-http-header.c
+++ b/src/detect-http-header.c
@@ -74,7 +74,8 @@ int DetectHttpHeaderMatch(ThreadVars *t, DetectEngineThreadCtx *det_ctx,
 
     SCMutexLock(&f->m);
 
-    if (htp_state == NULL) {
+    if (htp_state == NULL || htp_state->connp == NULL ||
+        htp_state->connp->conn == NULL) {
         SCLogDebug("No htp state, no match at http header data");
         goto end;
     }