diff --git a/src/fterm.cpp b/src/fterm.cpp
index c21da047..578e16ff 100644
--- a/src/fterm.cpp
+++ b/src/fterm.cpp
@@ -1002,10 +1002,10 @@ void FTerm::init()
   background_color_erase = false;
   x11_button_state = 0x03;
 
-  
-  // Use format-string to import the untrusted environment variable
-  snprintf(termtype, sizeof(termtype), "%s", getenv("TERM"));
-  if ( strnlen(termtype, sizeof(termtype)-1) == 0 )
+  char const* term_env = getenv("TERM");
+  if ( term_env ) // Import untrusted environment variable TERM
+    snprintf(termtype, sizeof(termtype), "%s", getenv("TERM"));  
+  else
     strncpy (termtype, const_cast<char*>("vt100"), 6);
 
   locale_xterm = getenv("XTERM_LOCALE");