diff --git a/src/rust/protover/protover.rs b/src/rust/protover/protover.rs
index 383a781fdc..14a70cd42b 100644
--- a/src/rust/protover/protover.rs
+++ b/src/rust/protover/protover.rs
@@ -245,6 +245,11 @@ impl FromStr for ProtoEntry {
     /// Otherwise, the `Err` value of this `Result` is a `ProtoverError`.
     fn from_str(protocol_entry: &str) -> Result<ProtoEntry, ProtoverError> {
         let mut proto_entry: ProtoEntry = ProtoEntry::default();
+
+        if protocol_entry.is_empty() {
+            return Ok(proto_entry);
+        }
+
         let entries = protocol_entry.split(' ');
 
         for entry in entries {
@@ -493,6 +498,10 @@ impl UnvalidatedProtoEntry {
     ) -> Result<Vec<(&'a str, &'a str)>, ProtoverError> {
         let mut protovers: Vec<(&str, &str)> = Vec::new();
 
+        if protocol_string.is_empty() {
+            return Ok(protovers);
+        }
+
         for subproto in protocol_string.split(' ') {
             let mut parts = subproto.splitn(2, '=');
 
@@ -851,7 +860,8 @@ mod test {
 
     #[test]
     fn test_protoentry_from_str_empty() {
-        assert_protoentry_is_unparseable!("");
+        assert_protoentry_is_parseable!("");
+        assert!(UnvalidatedProtoEntry::from_str("").is_ok());
     }
 
     #[test]
diff --git a/src/rust/protover/tests/protover.rs b/src/rust/protover/tests/protover.rs
index cf0fb5bd3a..c97810a6f2 100644
--- a/src/rust/protover/tests/protover.rs
+++ b/src/rust/protover/tests/protover.rs
@@ -69,18 +69,6 @@ fn protocol_all_supported_with_one_value() {
     assert_eq!(true, unsupported.is_none());
 }
 
-#[test]
-#[should_panic]
-fn parse_protocol_unvalidated_with_empty() {
-    let _: UnvalidatedProtoEntry = "".parse().unwrap();
-}
-
-#[test]
-#[should_panic]
-fn parse_protocol_validated_with_empty() {
-    let _: ProtoEntry = "".parse().unwrap();
-}
-
 #[test]
 fn protocol_all_supported_with_three_values() {
     let protocols: UnvalidatedProtoEntry = "LinkAuth=1 Microdesc=1-2 Relay=2".parse().unwrap();
@@ -156,7 +144,6 @@ fn parse_protocol_with_unexpected_characters() {
 }
 
 #[test]
-#[should_panic]
 fn protover_compute_vote_returns_empty_for_empty_string() {
     let protocols: &[UnvalidatedProtoEntry] = &["".parse().unwrap()];
     let listed = ProtoverVote::compute(protocols, &1);