diff --git a/builtin/blame.c b/builtin/blame.c
index 12c765acfe..4d52f9602e 100644
--- a/builtin/blame.c
+++ b/builtin/blame.c
@@ -2245,7 +2245,8 @@ static void verify_working_tree_path(struct commit *work_tree, const char *path)
 	pos = cache_name_pos(path, strlen(path));
 	if (pos >= 0)
 		; /* path is in the index */
-	else if (!strcmp(active_cache[-1 - pos]->name, path))
+	else if (-1 - pos < active_nr &&
+		 !strcmp(active_cache[-1 - pos]->name, path))
 		; /* path is in the index, unmerged */
 	else
 		die("no such path '%s' in HEAD", path);
diff --git a/t/t8002-blame.sh b/t/t8002-blame.sh
index ff09aced68..ab79de9544 100755
--- a/t/t8002-blame.sh
+++ b/t/t8002-blame.sh
@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@ test_description='git blame'
 PROG='git blame -c'
 . "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/annotate-tests.sh
 
+test_expect_success 'blame untracked file in empty repo' '
+	>untracked &&
+	test_must_fail git blame untracked
+'
+
 PROG='git blame -c -e'
 test_expect_success 'blame --show-email' '
 	check_count \