diff --git a/mysql-test/r/ctype_uca.result b/mysql-test/r/ctype_uca.result
index 3e286c77c00..1fd1493bf1e 100644
--- a/mysql-test/r/ctype_uca.result
+++ b/mysql-test/r/ctype_uca.result
@@ -2654,3 +2654,12 @@ ii	2	ii	2	İİ	4
 İİ	4	ii	2	İİ	4
 II	2	ıı	4	II	2
 DROP TABLE t1;
+CREATE TABLE t1 (
+c1 text character set ucs2 collate ucs2_polish_ci NOT NULL
+) ENGINE=MyISAM;
+insert into t1 values (''),('a');
+SELECT COUNT(*), c1 FROM t1 GROUP BY c1;
+COUNT(*)	c1
+1	
+1	a
+DROP TABLE IF EXISTS t1;
diff --git a/mysql-test/t/ctype_uca.test b/mysql-test/t/ctype_uca.test
index 3e49b9de883..64349bc40a6 100644
--- a/mysql-test/t/ctype_uca.test
+++ b/mysql-test/t/ctype_uca.test
@@ -475,3 +475,13 @@ ALTER TABLE t1 MODIFY a VARCHAR(30) character set utf8 collate utf8_turkish_ci;
 SELECT a, length(a) la, @l:=lower(a) l, length(@l) ll, @u:=upper(a) u, length(@u) lu
 FROM t1 ORDER BY id;
 DROP TABLE t1;
+
+#
+# Bug #27079 Crash while grouping empty ucs2 strings
+#
+CREATE TABLE t1 (
+ c1 text character set ucs2 collate ucs2_polish_ci NOT NULL
+) ENGINE=MyISAM;
+insert into t1 values (''),('a');
+SELECT COUNT(*), c1 FROM t1 GROUP BY c1;
+DROP TABLE IF EXISTS t1;
diff --git a/strings/ctype-uca.c b/strings/ctype-uca.c
index 1292d7f5ede..1263882846d 100644
--- a/strings/ctype-uca.c
+++ b/strings/ctype-uca.c
@@ -6744,7 +6744,7 @@ typedef struct my_uca_scanner_handler_st
   int (*next)(my_uca_scanner *scanner);
 } my_uca_scanner_handler;
 
-static uint16 nochar[]= {0};
+static uint16 nochar[]= {0,0};
 
 
 #ifdef HAVE_CHARSET_ucs2
@@ -6769,13 +6769,32 @@ static void my_uca_scanner_init_ucs2(my_uca_scanner *scanner,
                                      CHARSET_INFO *cs __attribute__((unused)),
                                      const uchar *str, uint length)
 {
-  /* Note, no needs to initialize scanner->wbeg */
-  scanner->sbeg= str;
-  scanner->send= str + length - 2;
   scanner->wbeg= nochar; 
-  scanner->uca_length= cs->sort_order;
-  scanner->uca_weight= cs->sort_order_big;
-  scanner->contractions= cs->contractions;
+  if (length)
+  {
+    scanner->sbeg= str;
+    scanner->send= str + length - 2;
+    scanner->uca_length= cs->sort_order;
+    scanner->uca_weight= cs->sort_order_big;
+    scanner->contractions= cs->contractions;
+    return;
+  }
+
+  /*
+    Sometimes this function is called with
+    str=NULL and length=0, which should be
+    considered as an empty string.
+    
+    The above initialization is unsafe for such cases,
+    because scanner->send is initialized to (NULL-2), which is 0xFFFFFFFE.
+    Then we fall into an endless loop in my_uca_scanner_next_ucs2().
+      
+    Do special initialization for the case when length=0.
+    Initialize scanner->sbeg to an address greater than scanner->send.
+    Next call of my_uca_scanner_next_ucs2() will correctly return with -1.
+  */
+  scanner->sbeg= (uchar*) &nochar[1];
+  scanner->send= (uchar*) &nochar[0];
 }