diff --git a/ChangeLog.d/pkparse-pkcs8-unencrypted-no-alloc.txt b/ChangeLog.d/pkparse-pkcs8-unencrypted-no-alloc.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d7a32e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ChangeLog.d/pkparse-pkcs8-unencrypted-no-alloc.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Changes
+   * In mbedtls_pk_parse_key(), if no password is provided, don't allocate a
+     temporary variable on the heap. Suggested by Sergey Kanatov in #5304.
diff --git a/library/pkparse.c b/library/pkparse.c
index b2d3bb0..22dab3a 100644
--- a/library/pkparse.c
+++ b/library/pkparse.c
@@ -1343,6 +1343,7 @@
      * error
      */
 #if defined(MBEDTLS_PKCS12_C) || defined(MBEDTLS_PKCS5_C)
+    if( pwdlen != 0 )
     {
         unsigned char *key_copy;