diff --git a/crates/eficore/src/bootloader_interface.rs b/crates/eficore/src/bootloader_interface.rs
index 87c6d01..ba6459f 100644
--- a/crates/eficore/src/bootloader_interface.rs
+++ b/crates/eficore/src/bootloader_interface.rs
@@ -295,9 +295,11 @@ impl BootloaderInterface {
 
     /// Get the default entry set by the bootloader interface.
     pub fn get_default_entry() -> Result<Option<String>> {
-        Self::VENDOR
+        // An empty value is treated as if the default entry was not set.
+        Ok(Self::VENDOR
             .get_cstr16("LoaderEntryDefault")
-            .context("unable to get default entry from bootloader interface")
+            .context("unable to get default entry from bootloader interface")?
+            .filter(|value| !value.is_empty()))
     }
 
     /// Get the oneshot entry set by the bootloader interface.
@@ -318,6 +320,7 @@ impl BootloaderInterface {
             .context("unable to remove oneshot entry")?;
 
         // Return the oneshot value.
-        Ok(Some(value))
+        // An empty value is treated as if the oneshot entry was not set.
+        Ok(Some(value).filter(|value| !value.is_empty()))
     }
 }
diff --git a/crates/eficore/src/strings.rs b/crates/eficore/src/strings.rs
index f61a21c..105c9b5 100644
--- a/crates/eficore/src/strings.rs
+++ b/crates/eficore/src/strings.rs
@@ -10,15 +10,21 @@ pub fn utf16_bytes_to_cstring16(bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<CString16> {
     }
 
     // Convert the bytes to UTF-16 data.
-    let data = bytes
+    let mut data = bytes
         // Chunk everything into two bytes.
         .as_chunks::<2>()
         .0
         .iter()
         // Reinterpret the bytes as u16 little-endian.
         .map(|chunk| u16::from_le_bytes([chunk[0], chunk[1]]))
+        // Stop at the first null terminator, if any.
+        // This ignores any trailing data, such as extra null padding.
+        .take_while(|c| *c != 0)
         // Collect the result into a vector.
         .collect::<Vec<_>>();
 
+    // Add the null terminator, as the input is not guaranteed to be null-terminated.
+    data.push(0);
+
     CString16::try_from(data).context("unable to convert utf16 bytes to CString16")
 }