diff --git a/ext/openssl/ossl_pkcs7.c b/ext/openssl/ossl_pkcs7.c
index cde2ac04a40b55..aeeb4bf5f40657 100644
--- a/ext/openssl/ossl_pkcs7.c
+++ b/ext/openssl/ossl_pkcs7.c
@@ -165,7 +165,11 @@ ossl_pkcs7_s_read_smime(VALUE klass, VALUE arg)
     out = NULL;
     pkcs7 = SMIME_read_PKCS7(in, &out);
     BIO_free(in);
-    if(!pkcs7) ossl_raise(ePKCS7Error, NULL);
+    if (!pkcs7)
+        ossl_raise(ePKCS7Error, "Could not parse the PKCS7");
+    if (!pkcs7->d.ptr)
+        ossl_raise(ePKCS7Error, "No content in PKCS7");
+
     data = out ? ossl_membio2str(out) : Qnil;
     SetPKCS7(ret, pkcs7);
     ossl_pkcs7_set_data(ret, data);
diff --git a/test/openssl/test_pkcs7.rb b/test/openssl/test_pkcs7.rb
index fa15bdbca73bc2..96f3f1f6becfe5 100644
--- a/test/openssl/test_pkcs7.rb
+++ b/test/openssl/test_pkcs7.rb
@@ -158,6 +158,16 @@ def test_enveloped
   def test_empty_signed_data_ruby_bug_19974
     data = "-----BEGIN PKCS7-----\nMAsGCSqGSIb3DQEHAg==\n-----END PKCS7-----\n"
     assert_raise(ArgumentError) { OpenSSL::PKCS7.new(data) }
+
+    data = <<END
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="smime.p7m"
+Content-Type: application/x-pkcs7-mime; smime-type=signed-data; name="smime.p7m"
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
+
+#{data}
+END
+    assert_raise(OpenSSL::PKCS7::PKCS7Error) { OpenSSL::PKCS7.read_smime(data) }
   end
 
   def test_graceful_parsing_failure #[ruby-core:43250]