diff --git a/hw/block/fdc.c b/hw/block/fdc.c
index c3e09973ca..af398c1116 100644
--- a/hw/block/fdc.c
+++ b/hw/block/fdc.c
@@ -1166,7 +1166,19 @@ static FDrive *get_drv(FDCtrl *fdctrl, int unit)
 
 static FDrive *get_cur_drv(FDCtrl *fdctrl)
 {
-    return get_drv(fdctrl, fdctrl->cur_drv);
+    FDrive *cur_drv = get_drv(fdctrl, fdctrl->cur_drv);
+
+    if (!cur_drv->blk) {
+        /*
+         * Kludge: empty drive line selected. Create an anonymous
+         * BlockBackend to avoid NULL deref with various BlockBackend
+         * API calls within this model (CVE-2021-20196).
+         * Due to the controller QOM model limitations, we don't
+         * attach the created to the controller device.
+         */
+        cur_drv->blk = blk_create_empty_drive();
+    }
+    return cur_drv;
 }
 
 /* Status A register : 0x00 (read-only) */