diff --git a/sound/soc/sof/intel/hda-dai.c b/sound/soc/sof/intel/hda-dai.c
index 883d0d3bae9ec2..3c742d53513337 100644
--- a/sound/soc/sof/intel/hda-dai.c
+++ b/sound/soc/sof/intel/hda-dai.c
@@ -70,12 +70,22 @@ static const struct hda_dai_widget_dma_ops *
 hda_dai_get_ops(struct snd_pcm_substream *substream, struct snd_soc_dai *cpu_dai)
 {
 	struct snd_soc_dapm_widget *w = snd_soc_dai_get_widget(cpu_dai, substream->stream);
-	struct snd_sof_widget *swidget = w->dobj.private;
+	struct snd_sof_widget *swidget;
 	struct snd_sof_dev *sdev;
 	struct snd_sof_dai *sdai;
 
-	sdev = widget_to_sdev(w);
+	/*
+	 * this is unlikely if the topology and the machine driver DAI links match.
+	 * But if there's a missing DAI link in topology, this will prevent a NULL pointer
+	 * dereference later on.
+	 */
+	if (!w) {
+		dev_err(cpu_dai->dev, "%s: widget is NULL\n", __func__);
+		return NULL;
+	}
 
+	sdev = widget_to_sdev(w);
+	swidget = w->dobj.private;
 	if (!swidget) {
 		dev_err(sdev->dev, "%s: swidget is NULL\n", __func__);
 		return NULL;