diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index be73b28b822..1cf598ac147 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ PHP                                                                        NEWS
     (Arnaud)
   . Fixed bug GH-19831 (function JIT may not deref property value). (Arnaud)
 
+- SimpleXML:
+  . Fixed bug GH-19988 (zend_string_init with NULL pointer in simplexml (UB)).
+    (nielsdos)
+
 - Soap:
   . Fixed bug GH-19784 (SoapServer memory leak). (nielsdos)
 
diff --git a/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c b/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c
index 787c1292e0e..a88edc666f5 100644
--- a/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c
+++ b/ext/simplexml/simplexml.c
@@ -1629,7 +1629,7 @@ PHP_METHOD(SimpleXMLElement, getName)
 	node = php_sxe_get_first_node_non_destructive(sxe, node);
 	if (node) {
 		namelen = xmlStrlen(node->name);
-		RETURN_STRINGL((char*)node->name, namelen);
+		RETURN_STRINGL_FAST((const char *) node->name, namelen);
 	} else {
 		RETURN_EMPTY_STRING();
 	}
diff --git a/ext/xsl/tests/gh19988.phpt b/ext/xsl/tests/gh19988.phpt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..174af282f9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ext/xsl/tests/gh19988.phpt
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+--TEST--
+GH-19988 (zend_string_init with NULL pointer in simplexml (UB))
+--EXTENSIONS--
+simplexml
+xsl
+--CREDITS--
+YuanchengJiang
+--FILE--
+<?php
+$sxe = simplexml_load_file(__DIR__ . '/53965/collection.xml');
+$processor = new XSLTProcessor;
+$dom = new DOMDocument;
+$dom->load(__DIR__ . '/53965/collection.xsl');
+$processor->importStylesheet($dom);
+$result = $processor->transformToDoc($sxe, SimpleXMLElement::class);
+var_dump($result->getName());
+?>
+--EXPECT--
+string(0) ""