diff --git a/include/asterisk/strings.h b/include/asterisk/strings.h
index f8ad4140d8..10eb011463 100644
--- a/include/asterisk/strings.h
+++ b/include/asterisk/strings.h
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ enum ast_strsep_flags {
   AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE unescapes '\' sequences.
   AST_STRSEP_ALL does all of the above processing.
   \return The next token or NULL if done or if there are more than 8 levels of
-  nested quotes.
+  nested quotes. If provided an empty string, will return the empty string.
 
   This function acts like strsep with three exceptions...
   The separator is a single character instead of a string.
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ char *ast_strsep(char **s, const char sep, uint32_t flags);
   AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE unescapes '\' sequences.
   AST_STRSEP_ALL does all of the above processing.
   \return The next token or NULL if done or if there are more than 8 levels of
-  nested quotes.
+  nested quotes. If provided an empty string, will return the empty string.
  */
 char *ast_strsep_quoted(char **s, const char sep, const char quote, uint32_t flags);
 
diff --git a/main/utils.c b/main/utils.c
index b4d79867c9..80282308d5 100644
--- a/main/utils.c
+++ b/main/utils.c
@@ -1841,7 +1841,8 @@ char *ast_strsep(char **iss, const char sep, uint32_t flags)
 	char stack[8];
 
 	if (ast_strlen_zero(st)) {
-		return NULL;
+		*iss = NULL;
+		return st;
 	}
 
 	memset(stack, 0, sizeof(stack));
@@ -1905,7 +1906,8 @@ char *ast_strsep_quoted(char **iss, const char sep, const char quote, uint32_t f
 	const char qstr[] = { quote };
 
 	if (ast_strlen_zero(st)) {
-		return NULL;
+		*iss = NULL;
+		return st;
 	}
 
 	memset(stack, 0, sizeof(stack));