diff --git a/src/java.desktop/macosx/native/libawt_lwawt/font/AWTFont.m b/src/java.desktop/macosx/native/libawt_lwawt/font/AWTFont.m
index 360baab2b9a..5e1d6ba0cb1 100644
--- a/src/java.desktop/macosx/native/libawt_lwawt/font/AWTFont.m
+++ b/src/java.desktop/macosx/native/libawt_lwawt/font/AWTFont.m
@@ -379,6 +379,9 @@ static OSStatus CreateFSRef(FSRef *myFSRefPtr, NSString *inPath)
     CTFontRef ctfont = (CTFontRef)nsFont;
     CFArrayRef tagsArray =
         CTFontCopyAvailableTables(ctfont, kCTFontTableOptionNoOptions);
+    if (tagsArray == NULL) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
     CFIndex numTags = CFArrayGetCount(tagsArray);
     for (i=0; i<numTags; i++) {
         if (tag ==