diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-rpc/ggml-rpc.cpp b/ggml/src/ggml-rpc/ggml-rpc.cpp
index a97db24e624e..f0ddbd6204f9 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-rpc/ggml-rpc.cpp
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-rpc/ggml-rpc.cpp
@@ -1734,17 +1734,13 @@ bool rpc_server::graph_compute(const std::vector<uint8_t> & input) {
         memcpy(&id, &nodes[i], sizeof(id));
         graph->nodes[i] = create_node(id, ctx, tensor_ptrs, tensor_map);
 
-        // Check if create_node failed for a *non-zero* ID.
-        // If id was 0, create_node returning nullptr is expected.
-        // If id was non-zero and create_node returned nullptr, it indicates a deserialization error.
-        if (graph->nodes[i] == nullptr && id != 0) {
+        // id 0 is valid for optional tensor sources, but not for graph nodes.
+        if (graph->nodes[i] == nullptr) {
             GGML_LOG_ERROR("[%s] failed to create graph node %d (id=%" PRId64 ")\n", __func__, i, id);
             return false;
         }
-        if (graph->nodes[i] != nullptr) {
-            const size_t hash_pos = ggml_hash_insert(&graph->visited_hash_set, graph->nodes[i]);
-            graph->use_counts[hash_pos] = tensor_ptrs.at(id)->use_count;
-        }
+        const size_t hash_pos = ggml_hash_insert(&graph->visited_hash_set, graph->nodes[i]);
+        graph->use_counts[hash_pos] = tensor_ptrs.at(id)->use_count;
     }
     ggml_status status = ggml_backend_graph_compute(backends[device], graph);
     GGML_ASSERT(status == GGML_STATUS_SUCCESS && "Unsuccessful graph computations are not supported with RPC");
diff --git a/tools/rpc/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/rpc/CMakeLists.txt
index 2891c7d034cf..a55e0f37973b 100644
--- a/tools/rpc/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tools/rpc/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -15,6 +15,18 @@ if (LLAMA_BUILD_TESTS AND UNIX AND NOT GGML_BACKEND_DL)
     set_property(TEST test-rpc-multi-server PROPERTY LABELS main)
 endif()
 
+if (LLAMA_BUILD_TESTS AND UNIX)
+    find_package(Python3 COMPONENTS Interpreter QUIET)
+    if (Python3_Interpreter_FOUND)
+        add_test(
+            NAME test-rpc-invalid-graph-node
+            COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE}
+                ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/test-rpc-invalid-graph-node.py
+                $<TARGET_FILE:${TARGET}>)
+        set_property(TEST test-rpc-invalid-graph-node PROPERTY LABELS main)
+    endif()
+endif()
+
 if(LLAMA_TOOLS_INSTALL)
     install(TARGETS ${TARGET} RUNTIME)
 endif()
diff --git a/tools/rpc/test-rpc-invalid-graph-node.py b/tools/rpc/test-rpc-invalid-graph-node.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..ac28206554c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/rpc/test-rpc-invalid-graph-node.py
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+import socket
+import struct
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import time
+
+
+def receive_exact(sock, size):
+    result = bytearray()
+    while len(result) < size:
+        chunk = sock.recv(size - len(result))
+        if not chunk:
+            raise ConnectionError("unexpected EOF")
+        result.extend(chunk)
+    return bytes(result)
+
+
+def reserve_port():
+    with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as sock:
+        sock.bind(("127.0.0.1", 0))
+        return sock.getsockname()[1]
+
+
+def wait_for_server(port):
+    deadline = time.monotonic() + 5
+    while time.monotonic() < deadline:
+        try:
+            with socket.create_connection(("127.0.0.1", port), timeout=0.1):
+                return
+        except OSError:
+            time.sleep(0.03)
+    raise TimeoutError("RPC server did not bind")
+
+
+def hello(sock):
+    payload = b"\0" * 24
+    sock.sendall(struct.pack("<B Q", 14, len(payload)) + payload)
+    response_size, = struct.unpack("<Q", receive_exact(sock, 8))
+    receive_exact(sock, response_size)
+
+
+def verify_server_responds(port):
+    deadline = time.monotonic() + 2
+    last_error = None
+    while time.monotonic() < deadline:
+        try:
+            with socket.create_connection(("127.0.0.1", port), timeout=0.2) as sock:
+                sock.settimeout(0.5)
+                hello(sock)
+                return
+        except (ConnectionError, OSError, TimeoutError) as error:
+            last_error = error
+            time.sleep(0.03)
+    raise AssertionError(f"RPC server stopped responding after invalid graph: {last_error}")
+
+
+def main():
+    if len(sys.argv) != 2:
+        raise SystemExit(f"usage: {sys.argv[0]} <ggml-rpc-server>")
+
+    port = reserve_port()
+    server = subprocess.Popen(
+        [sys.argv[1], "-H", "127.0.0.1", "-p", str(port)],
+        stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+        stderr=subprocess.STDOUT,
+        text=True,
+    )
+    error = None
+    try:
+        wait_for_server(port)
+        time.sleep(0.05)
+        with socket.create_connection(("127.0.0.1", port), timeout=1) as sock:
+            sock.settimeout(1)
+            hello(sock)
+            # RPC_CMD_GRAPH_COMPUTE is 10; unlike RPC_CMD_HELLO it is not pinned
+            # by a static_assert, so keep this in sync with enum rpc_cmd.
+            graph = struct.pack("<I I Q I", 0, 1, 0, 0)
+            sock.sendall(struct.pack("<B Q", 10, len(graph)) + graph)
+            try:
+                remainder = sock.recv(1)
+            except (socket.timeout, TimeoutError):
+                raise AssertionError(
+                    "RPC server kept the invalid graph connection open"
+                ) from None
+            if remainder != b"":
+                raise AssertionError("RPC server kept the invalid graph connection open")
+        verify_server_responds(port)
+        if server.poll() is not None:
+            raise AssertionError(f"RPC server exited after invalid graph: {server.returncode}")
+    except Exception as caught:
+        error = caught
+    finally:
+        if server.poll() is None:
+            server.terminate()
+        try:
+            output, _ = server.communicate(timeout=3)
+        except subprocess.TimeoutExpired:
+            server.kill()
+            output, _ = server.communicate()
+
+    if error is not None:
+        raise AssertionError(f"{error}\nRPC server output:\n{output}") from error
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()