diff --git a/src/node_file.cc b/src/node_file.cc
index 5d06960953a013..9da3fc7f2e0002 100644
--- a/src/node_file.cc
+++ b/src/node_file.cc
@@ -515,12 +515,17 @@ static void InternalModuleReadFile(const FunctionCallbackInfo<Value>& args) {
     start = 3;  // Skip UTF-8 BOM.
   }
 
-  Local<String> chars_string =
-      String::NewFromUtf8(env->isolate(),
-                          &chars[start],
-                          String::kNormalString,
-                          offset - start);
-  args.GetReturnValue().Set(chars_string);
+  const size_t size = offset - start;
+  if (size == 0) {
+    args.GetReturnValue().SetEmptyString();
+  } else {
+    Local<String> chars_string =
+        String::NewFromUtf8(env->isolate(),
+                            &chars[start],
+                            String::kNormalString,
+                            size);
+    args.GetReturnValue().Set(chars_string);
+  }
 }
 
 // Used to speed up module loading.  Returns 0 if the path refers to
diff --git a/test/fixtures/empty-with-bom.txt b/test/fixtures/empty-with-bom.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..5f282702bb03ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixtures/empty-with-bom.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-module-binding.js b/test/parallel/test-module-binding.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..ba11c3e47ec646
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-module-binding.js
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+'use strict';
+require('../common');
+const fixtures = require('../common/fixtures');
+const { internalModuleReadFile } = process.binding('fs');
+const { strictEqual } = require('assert');
+
+strictEqual(internalModuleReadFile('nosuchfile'), undefined);
+strictEqual(internalModuleReadFile(fixtures.path('empty.txt')), '');
+strictEqual(internalModuleReadFile(fixtures.path('empty-with-bom.txt')), '');