diff --git a/src/NerdBank.GitVersioning/ManagedGit/GitRepository.cs b/src/NerdBank.GitVersioning/ManagedGit/GitRepository.cs
index c079b951..43f02885 100644
--- a/src/NerdBank.GitVersioning/ManagedGit/GitRepository.cs
+++ b/src/NerdBank.GitVersioning/ManagedGit/GitRepository.cs
@@ -719,6 +719,11 @@ private static bool TryConvertHexStringToByteArray(string hexString, Span<byte>
         /// </returns>
         public static unsafe string GetString(ReadOnlySpan<byte> bytes)
         {
+            if (bytes.Length == 0)
+            {
+                return string.Empty;
+            }
+
             fixed (byte* pBytes = bytes)
             {
                 return Encoding.GetString(pBytes, bytes.Length);