diff --git a/src/chocolatey/infrastructure/cryptography/DefaultEncryptionUtility.cs b/src/chocolatey/infrastructure/cryptography/DefaultEncryptionUtility.cs
index c4ee408a5..211e6b831 100644
--- a/src/chocolatey/infrastructure/cryptography/DefaultEncryptionUtility.cs
+++ b/src/chocolatey/infrastructure/cryptography/DefaultEncryptionUtility.cs
@@ -61,6 +61,11 @@ This is can be because the machine keyfile cannot be written as a normal user.
 
         public string DecryptString(string encryptedString)
         {
+            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(encryptedString))
+            {
+                return null;
+            }
+
             var encryptedByteArray = Convert.FromBase64String(encryptedString);
             byte[] decryptedByteArray;