diff --git a/libavformat/soxdec.c b/libavformat/soxdec.c
index 12a94c8ffa..2801c3e239 100644
--- a/libavformat/soxdec.c
+++ b/libavformat/soxdec.c
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ static int sox_read_header(AVFormatContext *s)
                sample_rate_frac);
 
     if ((header_size + 4) & 7 || header_size < SOX_FIXED_HDR + comment_size
-        || st->codecpar->channels > 65535) /* Reserve top 16 bits */ {
+        || st->codecpar->channels > 65535 || st->codecpar->channels <= 0) /* Reserve top 16 bits */ {
         av_log(s, AV_LOG_ERROR, "invalid header\n");
         return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
     }