diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index e07765c1bb..ba9de5e5c1 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 Changes with Apache 2.3.0
 [ When backported to 2.2.x, remove entry from this file ]
 
+  *) Prevent crash in balancer manager if invalid balancer name is passed
+     as parameter. Reported by SecurityReason. [Ruediger Pluem]
+
   *) mod_deflate: Transform ETag when transforming the entity.
      PR 39727 [Henrik Nordstrom <hno squid-cache.org>, Nick Kew]
 
diff --git a/modules/proxy/mod_proxy_balancer.c b/modules/proxy/mod_proxy_balancer.c
index 9932e75282..6ea49b6161 100644
--- a/modules/proxy/mod_proxy_balancer.c
+++ b/modules/proxy/mod_proxy_balancer.c
@@ -671,7 +671,7 @@ static int balancer_handler(request_rec *r)
         proxy_worker *ws;
 
         ws = ap_proxy_get_worker(r->pool, conf, name);
-        if (ws) {
+        if (bsel && ws) {
             worker = (proxy_worker *)bsel->workers->elts;
             for (n = 0; n < bsel->workers->nelts; n++) {
                 if (strcasecmp(worker->name, ws->name) == 0) {