diff --git a/libavcodec/nellymoserdec.c b/libavcodec/nellymoserdec.c
index 7037d6b0ba..04b0c01afe 100644
--- a/libavcodec/nellymoserdec.c
+++ b/libavcodec/nellymoserdec.c
@@ -121,6 +121,11 @@ static av_cold int decode_init(AVCodecContext * avctx)
     float scale = 1.0f;
     NellyMoserDecodeContext *s = avctx->priv_data;
 
+    if (avctx->sample_rate <= 0) {
+        av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_ERROR, "Sample rate %d is invalid\n", avctx->sample_rate);
+        return AVERROR(EINVAL);
+    }
+
     s->avctx = avctx;
     s->imdct_out = s->imdct_buf[0];
     s->imdct_prev = s->imdct_buf[1];