diff --git a/examples/describe_consumer_groups.c b/examples/describe_consumer_groups.c
index 707937a7da..b392f3fa42 100644
--- a/examples/describe_consumer_groups.c
+++ b/examples/describe_consumer_groups.c
@@ -375,10 +375,6 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
          * Create Kafka client configuration place-holder
          */
         conf = rd_kafka_conf_new();
-        conf_set(conf, "sasl.username", "broker");
-        conf_set(conf, "sasl.password", "broker");
-        conf_set(conf, "sasl.mechanism", "SCRAM-SHA-256");
-        conf_set(conf, "security.protocol", "SASL_PLAINTEXT");
 
         /*
          * Parse common options
diff --git a/src/rdkafka_metadata.c b/src/rdkafka_metadata.c
index 19f4a2cad3..84ed53ac20 100644
--- a/src/rdkafka_metadata.c
+++ b/src/rdkafka_metadata.c
@@ -493,7 +493,7 @@ rd_kafka_parse_Metadata(rd_kafka_broker_t *rkb,
         /* If force_racks is true, the outptr mdip has to contain the partition
          * to rack map. */
         rd_bool_t force_rack_computation =
-            request->rkbuf_u.Metadata.force_racks;
+            request ? request->rkbuf_u.Metadata.force_racks : rd_false;
         rd_bool_t compute_racks = has_client_rack || force_rack_computation;
 
         /* Ignore metadata updates when terminating */