diff --git a/device_tree.c b/device_tree.c
index bba6cc2164..f5b4699aed 100644
--- a/device_tree.c
+++ b/device_tree.c
@@ -308,7 +308,7 @@ char **qemu_fdt_node_path(void *fdt, const char *name, char *compat,
             offset = len;
             break;
         }
-        if (!strcmp(iter_name, name)) {
+        if (!name || !strcmp(iter_name, name)) {
             char *path;
 
             path = g_malloc(path_len);
diff --git a/include/sysemu/device_tree.h b/include/sysemu/device_tree.h
index c16fd69bc0..7c53ef7634 100644
--- a/include/sysemu/device_tree.h
+++ b/include/sysemu/device_tree.h
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ void *load_device_tree_from_sysfs(void);
  * NULL. If there is no error but no matching node was found, the
  * returned array contains a single element equal to NULL. If an error
  * was encountered when parsing the blob, the function returns NULL
+ *
+ * @name may be NULL to wildcard names and only match compatibility
+ * strings.
  */
 char **qemu_fdt_node_path(void *fdt, const char *name, char *compat,
                           Error **errp);