diff --git a/target/arm/arch_dump.c b/target/arm/arch_dump.c
index 1a9861f69b..9e5b2fb31c 100644
--- a/target/arm/arch_dump.c
+++ b/target/arm/arch_dump.c
@@ -273,11 +273,18 @@ int arm_cpu_write_elf32_note(WriteCoreDumpFunction f, CPUState *cs,
 int cpu_get_dump_info(ArchDumpInfo *info,
                       const GuestPhysBlockList *guest_phys_blocks)
 {
-    ARMCPU *cpu = ARM_CPU(first_cpu);
-    CPUARMState *env = &cpu->env;
+    ARMCPU *cpu;
+    CPUARMState *env;
     GuestPhysBlock *block;
     hwaddr lowest_addr = ULLONG_MAX;
 
+    if (first_cpu == NULL) {
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    cpu = ARM_CPU(first_cpu);
+    env = &cpu->env;
+
     /* Take a best guess at the phys_base. If we get it wrong then crash
      * will need '--machdep phys_offset=<phys-offset>' added to its command
      * line, which isn't any worse than assuming we can use zero, but being