diff --git a/fs/cifs/smb2pdu.c b/fs/cifs/smb2pdu.c
index 8d471df69c59..625e3e9cb614 100644
--- a/fs/cifs/smb2pdu.c
+++ b/fs/cifs/smb2pdu.c
@@ -2587,8 +2587,13 @@ alloc_path_with_tree_prefix(__le16 **out_path, int *out_size, int *out_len,
 
 	cp = load_nls_default();
 	cifs_strtoUTF16(*out_path, treename, treename_len, cp);
-	UniStrcat(*out_path, sep);
-	UniStrcat(*out_path, path);
+
+	/* Do not append the separator if the path is empty */
+	if (path[0] != cpu_to_le16(0x0000)) {
+		UniStrcat(*out_path, sep);
+		UniStrcat(*out_path, path);
+	}
+
 	unload_nls(cp);
 
 	return 0;