diff --git a/vm/Exception.c b/vm/Exception.c
index 35151f2..ddb84e5 100644
--- a/vm/Exception.c
+++ b/vm/Exception.c
@@ -1261,7 +1261,8 @@
 
         dvmCallMethod(self, getMessageMethod, exception, &result);
         messageStr = (StringObject*) result.l;
-        dvmAddTrackedAlloc((Object*) messageStr, self);
+        if (messageStr != NULL)
+            dvmAddTrackedAlloc((Object*) messageStr, self);
 
         dvmChangeStatus(self, oldStatus);
     } else {
diff --git a/vm/alloc/Alloc.c b/vm/alloc/Alloc.c
index 4dcd91c..a897c67 100644
--- a/vm/alloc/Alloc.c
+++ b/vm/alloc/Alloc.c
@@ -247,6 +247,8 @@
  * We could do this per-thread or globally.  If it's global we don't have
  * to do the thread lookup but we do have to synchronize access to the list.
  *
+ * "obj" must not be NULL.
+ *
  * NOTE: "obj" is not a fully-formed object; in particular, obj->clazz will
  * usually be NULL since we're being called from dvmMalloc().
  */
@@ -255,6 +257,7 @@
     if (self == NULL)
         self = dvmThreadSelf();
 
+    assert(obj != NULL);
     assert(self != NULL);
     if (!dvmAddToReferenceTable(&self->internalLocalRefTable, obj)) {
         LOGE("threadid=%d: unable to add %p to internal ref table\n",