diff --git a/runtime/net.c b/runtime/net.c
index a47ec25cc..f4675b548 100644
--- a/runtime/net.c
+++ b/runtime/net.c
@@ -1150,8 +1150,16 @@ getLocalHostname(uchar **ppName)
 	if(gethostname(hnbuf, sizeof(hnbuf)) != 0) {
 		strcpy(hnbuf, "localhost");
 	} else {
-		hnbuf[sizeof(hnbuf)-1] = '\0'; /* be on the safe side... */
+		/* now guard against empty hostname
+		 * see https://github.com/rsyslog/rsyslog/issues/1040
+		 */
+		if(hnbuf[0] == '\0') {
+			strcpy(hnbuf, "localhost");
+		} else {
+			hnbuf[sizeof(hnbuf)-1] = '\0'; /* be on the safe side... */
+		}
 	}
+
 	char *dot = strstr(hnbuf, ".");
 	if(dot == NULL) {
 		/* we need to (try) to find the real name via resolver */
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index 16ac33aa1..75def2246 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -4,6 +4,14 @@ CLEANFILES = \
 # IN_AUTO_DEBUG should be deleted each time make check is run, but
 # there exists no such hook. Se we at least delete it on make clean.
 
+
+pkglib_LTLIBRARIES =
+
+pkglib_LTLIBRARIES += liboverride_gethostname.la
+liboverride_gethostname_la_SOURCES = override_gethostname.c
+liboverride_gethostname_la_CFLAGS =
+liboverride_gethostname_la_LDFLAGS = -avoid-version -shared
+
 # TODO: reenable TESTRUNS = rt_init rscript
 check_PROGRAMS = $(TESTRUNS) ourtail nettester tcpflood chkseq msleep randomgen \
 	diagtalker uxsockrcvr syslog_caller inputfilegen minitcpsrv \
@@ -13,6 +21,7 @@ TESTS = $(TESTRUNS)
 #TESTS = $(TESTRUNS) cfg.sh
 
 TESTS +=  \
+	empty-hostname.sh \
 	hostname-with-slash-pmrfc5424.sh \
 	hostname-with-slash-pmrfc3164.sh \
 	hostname-with-slash-dflt-invld.sh \
@@ -529,6 +538,7 @@ DISTCLEANFILES=rsyslog.pid
 test_files = testbench.h runtime-dummy.c
 
 EXTRA_DIST= \
+	empty-hostname.sh \
 	hostname-with-slash-pmrfc5424.sh \
 	hostname-with-slash-pmrfc3164.sh \
 	hostname-with-slash-dflt-invld.sh \
diff --git a/tests/diag.sh b/tests/diag.sh
index d08b00d88..f60549e6d 100755
--- a/tests/diag.sh
+++ b/tests/diag.sh
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ case $1 in
 		    echo "ERROR: config file '$CONF_FILE' not found!"
 		    exit 1
 		fi
-		$valgrind ../tools/rsyslogd -C -n -irsyslog$3.pid -M../runtime/.libs:../.libs -f$CONF_FILE &
+		LD_PRELOAD=$RSYSLOG_PRELOAD $valgrind ../tools/rsyslogd -C -n -irsyslog$3.pid -M../runtime/.libs:../.libs -f$CONF_FILE &
 		. $srcdir/diag.sh wait-startup $3
 		;;
    'startup-silent')   # start rsyslogd with default params. $2 is the config file name to use
diff --git a/tests/empty-hostname.sh b/tests/empty-hostname.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..10f2d40b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/empty-hostname.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# This is part of the rsyslog testbench, licensed under ASL 2.0
+echo ======================================================================
+. $srcdir/diag.sh init
+. $srcdir/diag.sh generate-conf
+. $srcdir/diag.sh add-conf '
+action(type="omfile" file="rsyslog.out.log")
+'
+export RSYSLOG_PRELOAD=.libs/liboverride_gethostname.so
+. $srcdir/diag.sh startup
+. $srcdir/diag.sh shutdown-when-empty # shut down rsyslogd when done processing messages
+. $srcdir/diag.sh wait-shutdown    # we need to wait until rsyslogd is finished!
+
+grep " localhost " < rsyslog.out.log
+if [ ! $? -eq 0 ]; then
+  echo "expected hostname \"localhost\" not found in logs, rsyslog.out.log is:"
+  cat rsyslog.out.log
+  . $srcdir/diag.sh error-exit 1
+fi;
+
+. $srcdir/diag.sh exit
diff --git a/tests/faketime_common.sh b/tests/faketime_common.sh
index 00d54c293..d27332506 100644
--- a/tests/faketime_common.sh
+++ b/tests/faketime_common.sh
@@ -36,11 +36,11 @@ rsyslog_testbench_preload_libfaketime() {
         exit 77
     else
         echo "Test passed! Will use '${RSYSLOG_LIBFAKETIME}' library!"
-        export LD_PRELOAD="${RSYSLOG_LIBFAKETIME}"
+        export RSYSLOG_PRELOAD="${RSYSLOG_LIBFAKETIME}"
     fi
 
     # GMT-1 (POSIX TIME) is GMT+1 in "Human Time"
-    faketime_testtime=$(FAKETIME="2040-01-01 16:00:00" TZ=GMT-1 date +%s 2>/dev/null)
+    faketime_testtime=$(LD_PRELOAD="${RSYSLOG_LIBFAKETIME}" FAKETIME="2040-01-01 16:00:00" TZ=GMT-1 date +%s 2>/dev/null)
     if [ ${faketime_testtime} -eq -1 ]; then
         echo "Note: System is not year-2038 compliant"
         RSYSLOG_TESTBENCH_Y2K38_INCOMPATIBLE="yes"
diff --git a/tests/override_gethostname.c b/tests/override_gethostname.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..561381130
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/override_gethostname.c
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+// we need this for dlsym(): #include <dlfcn.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+ 
+
+int gethostname(char *name, size_t __attribute__((unused)) len)
+{
+	*name = '\0';
+	return 0;
+}
+ 
+static void __attribute__((constructor))
+my_init(void)
+{
+	/* we currently do not need this entry point, but keep it as
+	 * a "template". It can be used, e.g. to emit some diagnostic
+	 * information:
+	printf("loaded\n");
+	 * or - more importantly - obtain a pointer to the overriden
+	 * API:
+	orig_etry = dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "original_entry_point");
+	*/
+}