diff --git a/man/sd_id128_get_machine.xml b/man/sd_id128_get_machine.xml
index fc13ae50f49..31e4b02d9bb 100644
--- a/man/sd_id128_get_machine.xml
+++ b/man/sd_id128_get_machine.xml
@@ -198,7 +198,10 @@
           <term><constant>-ENXIO</constant></term>
 
           <listitem><para>Returned by <function>sd_id128_get_invocation()</function> if no invocation ID is
-          set.</para>
+          set. Also returned by <function>sd_id128_get_app_specific()</function>,
+          <function>sd_id128_get_machine_app_specific()</function>, and
+          <function>sd_id128_get_boot_app_specific()</function> when the <parameter>app_id</parameter>
+          parameter is all zeros.</para>
 
           <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v242"/></listitem>
         </varlistentry>
diff --git a/src/id128/id128.c b/src/id128/id128.c
index 29cd2e2dc0e..18e08808057 100644
--- a/src/id128/id128.c
+++ b/src/id128/id128.c
@@ -235,7 +235,9 @@ static int parse_argv(int argc, char *argv[]) {
                         break;
 
                 case 'a':
-                        r = sd_id128_from_string(optarg, &arg_app);
+                        r = id128_from_string_nonzero(optarg, &arg_app);
+                        if (r == -ENXIO)
+                                return log_error_errno(r, "Application ID cannot be all zeros.");
                         if (r < 0)
                                 return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to parse \"%s\" as application-ID: %m", optarg);
                         break;
diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-id128/sd-id128.c b/src/libsystemd/sd-id128/sd-id128.c
index adc73e4fdcd..9fda79ae266 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-id128/sd-id128.c
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-id128/sd-id128.c
@@ -346,6 +346,7 @@ _public_ int sd_id128_get_app_specific(sd_id128_t base, sd_id128_t app_id, sd_id
         } buf;
 
         assert_return(ret, -EINVAL);
+        assert_return(!sd_id128_is_null(app_id), -ENXIO);
 
         hmac_sha256(&base, sizeof(base), &app_id, sizeof(app_id), buf.hmac);
 
diff --git a/src/test/test-id128.c b/src/test/test-id128.c
index 10c061b917a..ae7df27d8f9 100644
--- a/src/test/test-id128.c
+++ b/src/test/test-id128.c
@@ -192,6 +192,10 @@ TEST(id128) {
                 assert_se(sd_id128_get_machine_app_specific(SD_ID128_MAKE(51,df,0b,4b,c3,b0,4c,97,80,e2,99,b9,8c,a3,73,b8), &id2) >= 0);
                 assert_se(!sd_id128_equal(id, id2));
         }
+
+        /* Check return values */
+        assert_se(sd_id128_get_app_specific(SD_ID128_ALLF, SD_ID128_NULL, &id) == -ENXIO);
+        assert_se(sd_id128_get_app_specific(SD_ID128_NULL, SD_ID128_ALLF, &id) == 0);
 }
 
 TEST(sd_id128_get_invocation) {