diff --git a/ext/standard/tests/file/bug61961.phpt b/ext/standard/tests/file/bug61961.phpt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..23f3ba7b652fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ext/standard/tests/file/bug61961.phpt
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+--TEST--
+Bug #61961 (file_get_contents() leaks when access empty file with max length)
+--FILE--
+<?php
+$tmp_empty_file = __FILE__ . ".tmp";
+file_put_contents($tmp_empty_file, "");
+
+var_dump(file_get_contents($tmp_empty_file, NULL, NULL, NULL, 10));
+unlink($tmp_empty_file);
+?>
+==DONE==
+--EXPECT--
+string(0) ""
+==DONE==
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/main/streams/streams.c b/main/streams/streams.c
index 116c0aa045eb8..fe7800b9feb68 100755
--- a/main/streams/streams.c
+++ b/main/streams/streams.c
@@ -1366,7 +1366,12 @@ PHPAPI size_t _php_stream_copy_to_mem(php_stream *src, char **buf, size_t maxlen
 			len += ret;
 			ptr += ret;
 		}
-		*ptr = '\0';
+		if (len) {
+			*ptr = '\0';
+		} else {
+			pefree(*buf, persistent);
+			*buf = NULL;
+		}
 		return len;
 	}