diff --git a/ggml/src/gguf.cpp b/ggml/src/gguf.cpp
index ab3cc974867..b4655cbf138 100644
--- a/ggml/src/gguf.cpp
+++ b/ggml/src/gguf.cpp
@@ -508,6 +508,11 @@ struct gguf_context * gguf_init_from_file_ptr(FILE * file, struct gguf_init_para
                 GGML_LOG_ERROR("%s: encountered bad_alloc error while reading key %" PRIi64 "\n", __func__, i);
                 ok = false;
             }
+            // check that key is not empty (empty key would trigger GGML_ASSERT)
+            if (ok && key.empty()) {
+                GGML_LOG_ERROR("%s: key %" PRIi64 " has empty name\n", __func__, i);
+                ok = false;
+            }
             for (size_t j = 0; ok && j < ctx->kv.size(); ++j) {
                 if (key == ctx->kv[j].key) {
                     GGML_LOG_ERROR("%s: duplicate key '%s' for tensors %zu and %" PRIi64 " \n", __func__, key.c_str(), j, i);
@@ -619,7 +624,7 @@ struct gguf_context * gguf_init_from_file_ptr(FILE * file, struct gguf_init_para
                     ok = ok && gr.read(info.t.ne[j]);
                 }
 
-                // check that all ne are non-negative
+                // check that all ne are non-negative (negative is invalid; zero-sized tensors are valid in ggml)
                 if (info.t.ne[j] < 0) {
                     GGML_LOG_ERROR("%s: tensor '%s' dimension %" PRIu32 " has invalid number of elements: %" PRIi64 " < 0\n",
                         __func__, info.t.name, j, info.t.ne[j]);
@@ -629,7 +634,9 @@ struct gguf_context * gguf_init_from_file_ptr(FILE * file, struct gguf_init_para
             }
 
             // check that the total number of elements is representable
-            if (ok && ((INT64_MAX/info.t.ne[1] <= info.t.ne[0]) ||
+            // (skip when any dim is 0: zero-sized tensors have 0 elements, no overflow)
+            if (ok && info.t.ne[1] != 0 && info.t.ne[2] != 0 && info.t.ne[3] != 0 &&
+                       ((INT64_MAX/info.t.ne[1] <= info.t.ne[0]) ||
                        (INT64_MAX/info.t.ne[2] <= info.t.ne[0]*info.t.ne[1]) ||
                        (INT64_MAX/info.t.ne[3] <= info.t.ne[0]*info.t.ne[1]*info.t.ne[2]))) {