diff --git a/repos/libports/src/lib/libc/select.cc b/repos/libports/src/lib/libc/select.cc
index 6dc5b66221..a6fd80ad3a 100644
--- a/repos/libports/src/lib/libc/select.cc
+++ b/repos/libports/src/lib/libc/select.cc
@@ -374,18 +374,22 @@ extern "C" __attribute__((weak))
 int pselect(int nfds, fd_set *readfds, fd_set *writefds, fd_set *exceptfds,
             const struct timespec *timeout, const sigset_t *sigmask)
 {
-	struct timeval tv;
+	struct timeval tv { 0, 0 };
+	struct timeval *tv_ptr = nullptr;
 	sigset_t origmask;
 	int nready;
 
 	if (timeout) {
 		tv.tv_usec = timeout->tv_nsec / 1000;
 		tv.tv_sec = timeout->tv_sec;
+		tv_ptr = &tv;
 	}
 
 	if (sigmask)
 		sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, sigmask, &origmask);
-	nready = select(nfds, readfds, writefds, exceptfds, &tv);
+
+	nready = select(nfds, readfds, writefds, exceptfds, tv_ptr);
+
 	if (sigmask)
 		sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &origmask, NULL);