diff --git a/glib/gbytes.c b/glib/gbytes.c
index 7b72886e5..ec6923188 100644
--- a/glib/gbytes.c
+++ b/glib/gbytes.c
@@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ g_bytes_equal (gconstpointer bytes1,
   g_return_val_if_fail (bytes2 != NULL, FALSE);
 
   return b1->size == b2->size &&
-         memcmp (b1->data, b2->data, b1->size) == 0;
+         (b1->size == 0 || memcmp (b1->data, b2->data, b1->size) == 0);
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/glib/gvariant.c b/glib/gvariant.c
index b61bf7278..d7ec8dc70 100644
--- a/glib/gvariant.c
+++ b/glib/gvariant.c
@@ -2765,7 +2765,10 @@ g_variant_equal (gconstpointer one,
       data_one = g_variant_get_data ((GVariant *) one);
       data_two = g_variant_get_data ((GVariant *) two);
 
-      equal = memcmp (data_one, data_two, size_one) == 0;
+      if (size_one)
+        equal = memcmp (data_one, data_two, size_one) == 0;
+      else
+        equal = TRUE;
     }
   else
     {