diff --git a/src/libcamera/controls.cpp b/src/libcamera/controls.cpp
index 6dbf9b348709..b808116c01e5 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/controls.cpp
+++ b/src/libcamera/controls.cpp
@@ -677,6 +677,9 @@ ControlInfoMap::ControlInfoMap(Map &&info, const ControlIdMap &idmap)
 
 bool ControlInfoMap::validate()
 {
+	if (!idmap_)
+		return false;
+
 	for (const auto &ctrl : *this) {
 		const ControlId *id = ctrl.first;
 		auto it = idmap_->find(id->id());
@@ -719,6 +722,8 @@ bool ControlInfoMap::validate()
  */
 ControlInfoMap::mapped_type &ControlInfoMap::at(unsigned int id)
 {
+	ASSERT(idmap_);
+
 	return at(idmap_->at(id));
 }
 
@@ -729,6 +734,8 @@ ControlInfoMap::mapped_type &ControlInfoMap::at(unsigned int id)
  */
 const ControlInfoMap::mapped_type &ControlInfoMap::at(unsigned int id) const
 {
+	ASSERT(idmap_);
+
 	return at(idmap_->at(id));
 }
 
@@ -739,6 +746,9 @@ const ControlInfoMap::mapped_type &ControlInfoMap::at(unsigned int id) const
  */
 ControlInfoMap::size_type ControlInfoMap::count(unsigned int id) const
 {
+	if (!idmap_)
+		return 0;
+
 	/*
 	 * The ControlInfoMap and its idmap have a 1:1 mapping between their
 	 * entries, we can thus just count the matching entries in idmap to
@@ -755,6 +765,9 @@ ControlInfoMap::size_type ControlInfoMap::count(unsigned int id) const
  */
 ControlInfoMap::iterator ControlInfoMap::find(unsigned int id)
 {
+	if (!idmap_)
+		return end();
+
 	auto iter = idmap_->find(id);
 	if (iter == idmap_->end())
 		return end();
@@ -770,6 +783,9 @@ ControlInfoMap::iterator ControlInfoMap::find(unsigned int id)
  */
 ControlInfoMap::const_iterator ControlInfoMap::find(unsigned int id) const
 {
+	if (!idmap_)
+		return end();
+
 	auto iter = idmap_->find(id);
 	if (iter == idmap_->end())
 		return end();