diff --git a/components/protocomm/src/common/protocomm.c b/components/protocomm/src/common/protocomm.c
index 1a548267904..824d59f0a7f 100644
--- a/components/protocomm/src/common/protocomm.c
+++ b/components/protocomm/src/common/protocomm.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018-2025 Espressif Systems (Shanghai) CO LTD
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018-2026 Espressif Systems (Shanghai) CO LTD
  *
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
  */
@@ -433,6 +433,10 @@ esp_err_t protocomm_get_sec_version(protocomm_t *pc, int *sec_ver, uint8_t *sec_
         return ESP_ERR_INVALID_ARG;
     }
 
+    if (pc->sec == NULL) {
+        return ESP_ERR_INVALID_STATE;
+    }
+
     *sec_ver = pc->sec->ver;
     *sec_patch_ver = pc->sec->patch_ver;