diff --git a/components/wpa_supplicant/src/crypto/tls_mbedtls.c b/components/wpa_supplicant/src/crypto/tls_mbedtls.c
index 1185db8038..dc00fa4897 100644
--- a/components/wpa_supplicant/src/crypto/tls_mbedtls.c
+++ b/components/wpa_supplicant/src/crypto/tls_mbedtls.c
@@ -510,6 +510,10 @@ struct tls_connection * tls_connection_init(void *tls_ctx)
 
 void tls_connection_deinit(void *tls_ctx, struct tls_connection *conn)
 {
+	/* case: tls init failed */
+	if(!conn) {
+		return;
+	}
 	/* Free ssl ctx and data */
 	tls_mbedtls_conn_delete((tls_context_t *) conn->tls);
 	os_free(conn->tls);