diff --git a/src/detect-icmpv6hdr.c b/src/detect-icmpv6hdr.c
index f892f5921b..7de83dc5f1 100644
--- a/src/detect-icmpv6hdr.c
+++ b/src/detect-icmpv6hdr.c
@@ -105,7 +105,10 @@ static InspectionBuffer *GetData(DetectEngineThreadCtx *det_ctx,
     InspectionBuffer *buffer = InspectionBufferGet(det_ctx, list_id);
     if (buffer->inspect == NULL) {
         uint32_t hlen = ICMPV6_HEADER_LEN;
-        DEBUG_VALIDATE_BUG_ON(p->icmpv6h == NULL);
+        if (p->icmpv6h == NULL) {
+            // DETECT_PROTO_IPV6 does not prefilter
+            return NULL;
+        }
         if (((uint8_t *)p->icmpv6h + (ptrdiff_t)hlen) >
                 ((uint8_t *)GET_PKT_DATA(p) + (ptrdiff_t)GET_PKT_LEN(p)))
         {