diff --git a/components/tcp_transport/transport_ws.c b/components/tcp_transport/transport_ws.c
index 46c00d9f005..ead7d0173cf 100644
--- a/components/tcp_transport/transport_ws.c
+++ b/components/tcp_transport/transport_ws.c
@@ -277,13 +277,14 @@ static int ws_connect(esp_transport_handle_t t, const char *host, int port, int
     }
 
     if(ws->response_header) {
+        int copy_len = header_len;
         if(ws->response_header_len - 1 < header_len) {
             ESP_LOGW(TAG, "Received header length exceedes the allocated buffer size (need=%d, allocated=%d), truncating to allocated size", header_len, ws->response_header_len);
-            header_len = ws->response_header_len;
+            copy_len = ws->response_header_len - 1;
         }
         // Copy response header to the static array
-        strncpy(ws->response_header, ws->buffer, header_len);
-        ws->response_header[ws->response_header_len - 1] = '\0';
+        strncpy(ws->response_header, ws->buffer, copy_len);
+        ws->response_header[copy_len] = '\0';
     }
 
     char* delim_ptr = strstr(ws->buffer, delimiter);