diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 651862313..b7c34ae55 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 
+## [7.0.1] (unreleased)
+
+### Fixed
+- Do not store in memory an empty file received as nvt preference. [#409](https://github.com/greenbone/openvas/pull/409)
+
+[7.0.1]: https://github.com/greenbone/openvas/compare/v7.0.0...openvas-7.0
+
 ## [7.0.0] (2019-10-11)
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/src/openvas.c b/src/openvas.c
index fcfc138ab..ca4d46679 100644
--- a/src/openvas.c
+++ b/src/openvas.c
@@ -247,8 +247,8 @@ load_scan_preferences (struct scan_globals *globals)
       if (pref[0])
         {
           gchar **pref_name = g_strsplit (pref[0], ":", 3);
-          if (pref_name[1] && pref_name[2]
-              && !strncmp (pref_name[2], "file", 4))
+          if (pref_name[1] && pref_name[2] && !strncmp (pref_name[2], "file", 4)
+              && strcmp (pref[1], ""))
             {
               char *file_hash = gvm_uuid_make ();
               int ret;