diff --git a/linux/LinuxProcess.c b/linux/LinuxProcess.c
index bef648a9..9dd3b93d 100644
--- a/linux/LinuxProcess.c
+++ b/linux/LinuxProcess.c
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ void LinuxProcess_writeField(Process* this, RichString* str, ProcessField field)
    case VXID: xSnprintf(buffer, n, "%5u ", lp->vxid); break;
    #endif
    #ifdef HAVE_CGROUP
-   case CGROUP: xSnprintf(buffer, n, "%-10s ", lp->cgroup); break;
+   case CGROUP: xSnprintf(buffer, n, "%-10s ", lp->cgroup ? lp->cgroup : ""); break;
    #endif
    case OOM: xSnprintf(buffer, n, "%4u ", lp->oom); break;
    case IO_PRIORITY: {
diff --git a/linux/LinuxProcessList.c b/linux/LinuxProcessList.c
index a02509fc..55879236 100644
--- a/linux/LinuxProcessList.c
+++ b/linux/LinuxProcessList.c
@@ -509,7 +509,10 @@ static void LinuxProcessList_readCGroupFile(LinuxProcess* process, const char* d
    xSnprintf(filename, MAX_NAME, "%s/%s/cgroup", dirname, name);
    FILE* file = fopen(filename, "r");
    if (!file) {
-      process->cgroup = xStrdup("");
+      if (process->cgroup) {
+         free(process->cgroup);
+         process->cgroup = NULL;
+      }
       return;
    }
    char output[PROC_LINE_LENGTH + 1];