diff --git a/oprofile-handle-empty-event-name-spec-gracefully-for-ppc.patch b/oprofile-handle-empty-event-name-spec-gracefully-for-ppc.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1263dcc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/oprofile-handle-empty-event-name-spec-gracefully-for-ppc.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+From: William Cohen <wcohen@redhat.com>
+Date: Fri Aug 3 10:10:12 2018 -0400
+Subject: Handle empty event name spec gracefully for PPC
+Git-commit 457d33de89939ffaa523c2a6377ed7d1506ce255
+References: none
+Signed-off-by: Tony Jones <tonyj@suse.de>
+
+    Handle empty event name spec gracefully for PPC
+    
+    During testing Michael Petlan found that the giving an empty event
+    name in the event spec to operf on PPC machines would cause operf
+    crash.  Running the following following command would demonstrate
+    this problem:
+    
+      operf -e : /bin/ls
+    
+    The problem was traced to event_name in _handle_powerpc_event_spec
+    function having a length of 0.  The strncmp using event_name in
+    _handle_powerpc_event_spec would indicate a match and cause strncpy to
+    be called to copy zero bytes. The zero length strncpy would crash
+    operf.  Added a check to make ensure that the string is non-zero
+    length.
+    
+    Signed-off-by: William Cohen <wcohen@redhat.com>
+
+diff --git a/libpe_utils/op_pe_utils.cpp b/libpe_utils/op_pe_utils.cpp
+index f9638c77..2cae7840 100644
+--- a/libpe_utils/op_pe_utils.cpp
++++ b/libpe_utils/op_pe_utils.cpp
+@@ -588,7 +588,7 @@ static string _handle_powerpc_event_spec(string event_spec)
+ 		}
+ 		if (line[0] == ' ' || line[0] == '\t')
+ 			continue;
+-		if (!strncmp(line, event_name, evt_name_len)) {
++		if (evt_name_len && !strncmp(line, event_name, evt_name_len)) {
+ 			// Found a potential match.  Check if it's a perfect match.
+ 			string save_event_name = event_name;
+ 			size_t full_evt_len = index(line, ':') - line;
diff --git a/oprofile.changes b/oprofile.changes
index f8f58f2..a661283 100644
--- a/oprofile.changes
+++ b/oprofile.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mon Oct 29 21:07:04 UTC 2018 - Tony Jones <tonyj@suse.com>
+
+- Handle empty event name gracefully on ppc.
+  New patch: oprofile-handle-empty-event-name-spec-gracefully-for-ppc.patch
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Thu Jul 26 15:57:53 UTC 2018 - tonyj@suse.com
 
diff --git a/oprofile.spec b/oprofile.spec
index 4393931..9f9f6b1 100644
--- a/oprofile.spec
+++ b/oprofile.spec
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 # license that conforms to the Open Source Definition (Version 1.9)
 # published by the Open Source Initiative.
 
-# Please submit bugfixes or comments via http://bugs.opensuse.org/
+# Please submit bugfixes or comments via https://bugs.opensuse.org/
 #
 
 
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ Source4:        jvmpi.h
 Source5:        README-BEFORE-ADDING-PATCHES
 Patch1:         %{name}-no-libjvm-version.patch
 Patch2:         %{name}-pfm-ppc.patch
+Patch3:         %{name}-handle-empty-event-name-spec-gracefully-for-ppc.patch
 BuildRequires:  autoconf
 BuildRequires:  automake
 BuildRequires:  binutils-devel
@@ -101,6 +102,7 @@ from supported virtual machines.
 %setup -q
 %patch1 -p1
 %patch2 -p1
+%patch3 -p1
 
 mkdir -p java/include
 # copy files necessary to build Java agent libraries