diff --git a/src/util.cc b/src/util.cc
index 544b547b29..54b1041501 100644
--- a/src/util.cc
+++ b/src/util.cc
@@ -1552,13 +1552,13 @@ TEST_CASE("util normalize_path")
 	CHECK(normalize_path("zeek/../..") == "..");
 	}
 
-string normalize_path(const string& path)
+string normalize_path(const std::string_view path)
 	{
 	size_t n;
 	vector<string> components, final_components;
 	string new_path;
 
-	if ( path[0] == '/' )
+	if ( !path.empty() && path[0] == '/' )
 		new_path = "/";
 
 	tokenize_string(path, "/", &components);
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index 9442357e0b..b2b346f727 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ std::string flatten_script_name(const std::string& name,
  * @param path A filesystem path.
  * @return A canonical/shortened version of \a path.
  */
-std::string normalize_path(const std::string& path);
+std::string normalize_path(std::string_view path);
 
 /**
  * Strip the ZEEKPATH component from a path.