diff --git a/block/qcow2-refcount.c b/block/qcow2-refcount.c
index aa3fd6cf17..9059996c4b 100644
--- a/block/qcow2-refcount.c
+++ b/block/qcow2-refcount.c
@@ -367,6 +367,13 @@ static int alloc_refcount_block(BlockDriverState *bs,
         return new_block;
     }
 
+    /* If we're allocating the block at offset 0 then something is wrong */
+    if (new_block == 0) {
+        qcow2_signal_corruption(bs, true, -1, -1, "Preventing invalid "
+                                "allocation of refcount block at offset 0");
+        return -EIO;
+    }
+
 #ifdef DEBUG_ALLOC2
     fprintf(stderr, "qcow2: Allocate refcount block %d for %" PRIx64
         " at %" PRIx64 "\n",
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/060 b/tests/qemu-iotests/060
index 8e95c450eb..dead26aeaf 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/060
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/060
@@ -242,6 +242,17 @@ poke_file "$TEST_IMG" "$(($l2_offset+8))" "\x80\x00\x00\x00\x00\x06\x2a\x00"
 # Should emit two error messages
 $QEMU_IO -c "discard 0 64k" -c "read 64k 64k" "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
 
+echo
+echo "=== Testing empty refcount table with valid L1 and L2 tables ==="
+echo
+_make_test_img 64M
+$QEMU_IO -c "write 0 64k" "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
+poke_file "$TEST_IMG" "$rt_offset"        "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"
+# Since the first data cluster is already allocated this triggers an
+# allocation with an explicit offset (using qcow2_alloc_clusters_at())
+# causing a refcount block to be allocated at offset 0
+$QEMU_IO -c "write 0 128k" "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
+
 # success, all done
 echo "*** done"
 rm -f $seq.full
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out
index 5ca3af491f..872719009c 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/060.out
@@ -181,4 +181,12 @@ qcow2: Marking image as corrupt: Cluster allocation offset 0x62a00 unaligned (L2
 discard 65536/65536 bytes at offset 0
 64 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
 read failed: Input/output error
+
+=== Testing empty refcount table with valid L1 and L2 tables ===
+
+Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=67108864
+wrote 65536/65536 bytes at offset 0
+64 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
+qcow2: Marking image as corrupt: Preventing invalid allocation of refcount block at offset 0; further corruption events will be suppressed
+write failed: Input/output error
 *** done