diff --git a/library/x509_csr.c b/library/x509_csr.c
index c706dbd..6bae124 100644
--- a/library/x509_csr.c
+++ b/library/x509_csr.c
@@ -272,34 +272,25 @@
         return( MBEDTLS_ERR_X509_BAD_INPUT_DATA );
 
 #if defined(MBEDTLS_PEM_PARSE_C)
-    mbedtls_pem_init( &pem );
-
     /* Avoid calling mbedtls_pem_read_buffer() on non-null-terminated string */
-    if( buflen == 0 || buf[buflen - 1] != '\0' )
-        ret = MBEDTLS_ERR_PEM_NO_HEADER_FOOTER_PRESENT;
-    else
+    if( buf[buflen - 1] == '\0' )
+    {
+        mbedtls_pem_init( &pem );
         ret = mbedtls_pem_read_buffer( &pem,
                                "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----",
                                "-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----",
                                buf, NULL, 0, &use_len );
 
-    if( ret == 0 )
-    {
-        /*
-         * Was PEM encoded, parse the result
-         */
-        if( ( ret = mbedtls_x509_csr_parse_der( csr, pem.buf, pem.buflen ) ) != 0 )
-            return( ret );
+        if( ret == 0 )
+            /*
+             * Was PEM encoded, parse the result
+             */
+            ret = mbedtls_x509_csr_parse_der( csr, pem.buf, pem.buflen );
 
         mbedtls_pem_free( &pem );
-        return( 0 );
+        if( ret != MBEDTLS_ERR_PEM_NO_HEADER_FOOTER_PRESENT )
+            return( ret );
     }
-    else if( ret != MBEDTLS_ERR_PEM_NO_HEADER_FOOTER_PRESENT )
-    {
-        mbedtls_pem_free( &pem );
-        return( ret );
-    }
-    else
 #endif /* MBEDTLS_PEM_PARSE_C */
     return( mbedtls_x509_csr_parse_der( csr, buf, buflen ) );
 }