diff --git a/dlls/ntdll/sync.c b/dlls/ntdll/sync.c
index bbbcfbab171..36a9c86a00c 100644
--- a/dlls/ntdll/sync.c
+++ b/dlls/ntdll/sync.c
@@ -86,13 +86,7 @@ NTSTATUS alloc_object_attributes( const OBJECT_ATTRIBUTES *attr, struct object_a
     *ret = NULL;
     *ret_len = 0;
 
-    if (!attr)
-    {
-        *ret = RtlAllocateHeap( GetProcessHeap(), HEAP_ZERO_MEMORY, len );
-        if (!*ret) return STATUS_NO_MEMORY;
-        *ret_len = len;
-        return STATUS_SUCCESS;
-    }
+    if (!attr) return STATUS_SUCCESS;
 
     if ((sd = attr->SecurityDescriptor))
     {
diff --git a/include/wine/server_protocol.h b/include/wine/server_protocol.h
index 65f053654ed..8dd4994784f 100644
--- a/include/wine/server_protocol.h
+++ b/include/wine/server_protocol.h
@@ -6171,6 +6171,6 @@ union generic_reply
     struct terminate_job_reply terminate_job_reply;
 };
 
-#define SERVER_PROTOCOL_VERSION 493
+#define SERVER_PROTOCOL_VERSION 494
 
 #endif /* __WINE_WINE_SERVER_PROTOCOL_H */
diff --git a/server/request.c b/server/request.c
index 7b7d8b1b3fc..2debf6dbb72 100644
--- a/server/request.c
+++ b/server/request.c
@@ -169,9 +169,17 @@ void *set_reply_data_size( data_size_t size )
 const struct object_attributes *get_req_object_attributes( const struct security_descriptor **sd,
                                                            struct unicode_str *name )
 {
+    static const struct object_attributes empty_attributes;
     const struct object_attributes *attr = get_req_data();
     data_size_t size = get_req_data_size();
 
+    if (!size)
+    {
+        *sd = NULL;
+        name->len = 0;
+        return &empty_attributes;
+    }
+
     if ((size < sizeof(*attr)) || (size - sizeof(*attr) < attr->sd_len) ||
         (size - sizeof(*attr) - attr->sd_len < attr->name_len))
     {
diff --git a/server/trace.c b/server/trace.c
index e02b8c302a3..edfcaf52b9a 100644
--- a/server/trace.c
+++ b/server/trace.c
@@ -1074,20 +1074,27 @@ static void dump_varargs_object_attributes( const char *prefix, data_size_t size
     const struct object_attributes *objattr = cur_data;
 
     fprintf( stderr,"%s{", prefix );
-    if (size >= sizeof(struct object_attributes))
+    if (size)
     {
         const WCHAR *str;
-        fprintf( stderr, "rootdir=%04x,attributes=%08x", objattr->rootdir, objattr->attributes );
-        if (objattr->sd_len > size - sizeof(*objattr) ||
-            objattr->name_len > size - sizeof(*objattr) - objattr->sd_len)
+
+        if (size < sizeof(*objattr) ||
+            (size - sizeof(*objattr) < objattr->sd_len) ||
+            (size - sizeof(*objattr) - objattr->sd_len < objattr->name_len))
+        {
+            fprintf( stderr, "***invalid***}" );
+            remove_data( size );
             return;
+        }
+
+        fprintf( stderr, "rootdir=%04x,attributes=%08x", objattr->rootdir, objattr->attributes );
         dump_inline_security_descriptor( ",sd=", (const struct security_descriptor *)(objattr + 1), objattr->sd_len );
         str = (const WCHAR *)objattr + (sizeof(*objattr) + objattr->sd_len) / sizeof(WCHAR);
         fprintf( stderr, ",name=L\"" );
         dump_strW( str, objattr->name_len / sizeof(WCHAR), stderr, "\"\"" );
         fputc( '\"', stderr );
         remove_data( ((sizeof(*objattr) + objattr->sd_len) / sizeof(WCHAR)) * sizeof(WCHAR) +
-                     objattr->name_len );
+                     (objattr->name_len / sizeof(WCHAR)) * sizeof(WCHAR) );
     }
     fputc( '}', stderr );
 }
@@ -3928,10 +3935,7 @@ static void dump_get_directory_entry_reply( const struct get_directory_entry_rep
 static void dump_create_symlink_request( const struct create_symlink_request *req )
 {
     fprintf( stderr, " access=%08x", req->access );
-    fprintf( stderr, ", attributes=%08x", req->attributes );
-    fprintf( stderr, ", rootdir=%04x", req->rootdir );
-    fprintf( stderr, ", name_len=%u", req->name_len );
-    dump_varargs_unicode_str( ", name=", min(cur_size,req->name_len) );
+    dump_varargs_object_attributes( ", objattr=", cur_size );
     dump_varargs_unicode_str( ", target_name=", cur_size );
 }