diff --git a/poi-ooxml/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/xwpf/usermodel/XWPFFootnotes.java b/poi-ooxml/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/xwpf/usermodel/XWPFFootnotes.java
index f9bdfb7ad8..177a570882 100644
--- a/poi-ooxml/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/xwpf/usermodel/XWPFFootnotes.java
+++ b/poi-ooxml/src/main/java/org/apache/poi/xwpf/usermodel/XWPFFootnotes.java
@@ -127,8 +127,11 @@ public class XWPFFootnotes extends XWPFAbstractFootnotesEndnotes {
         XmlOptions xmlOptions = new XmlOptions(DEFAULT_XML_OPTIONS);
         xmlOptions.setSaveSyntheticDocumentElement(new QName(CTFootnotes.type.getName().getNamespaceURI(), "footnotes"));
         PackagePart part = getPackagePart();
-        try (OutputStream out = part.getOutputStream()) {
-            ctFootnotes.save(out, xmlOptions);
+
+        if (ctFootnotes != null) {
+            try (OutputStream out = part.getOutputStream()) {
+                ctFootnotes.save(out, xmlOptions);
+            }
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/test-data/document/clusterfuzz-testcase-minimized-POIXWPFFuzzer-5166796835258368.docx b/test-data/document/clusterfuzz-testcase-minimized-POIXWPFFuzzer-5166796835258368.docx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..08e62e49e2
Binary files /dev/null and b/test-data/document/clusterfuzz-testcase-minimized-POIXWPFFuzzer-5166796835258368.docx differ