diff --git a/password.pl b/password.pl
index 10e96d8..8a81b02 100644
--- a/password.pl
+++ b/password.pl
@@ -43,7 +43,8 @@ if( $mesg-> count() == 0 ) { exit(0) ; }
 
 foreach my $entry ( $mesg-> entries ){
    my $userPassword = $entry->get_value('userPassword') ;
-   my $sshaPassword = `slappasswd -n -s $userPassword` ;
+   my $sshaPassword='';
+   if ( $userPassword ) { $sshaPassword= `slappasswd -n -s $userPassword` ;}
    if(  $userPassword =~ /^{SSHA/ ) {
       print $entry->dn() . " already hashed\n" ;
       next ; }