diff -Naur a/src/cryptography/hazmat/backends/openssl/backend.py b/src/cryptography/hazmat/backends/openssl/backend.py
--- a/src/cryptography/hazmat/backends/openssl/backend.py	2023-12-02 16:06:27.029247885 +0800
+++ b/src/cryptography/hazmat/backends/openssl/backend.py	2023-12-02 16:03:19.239094195 +0800
@@ -2664,6 +2664,10 @@
                 _Reasons.UNSUPPORTED_SERIALIZATION,
             )
 
+            certs: list[x509.Certificate] = []
+            if p7.d.sign == self._ffi.NULL:
+                return certs
+
         sk_x509 = p7.d.sign.cert
         num = self._lib.sk_X509_num(sk_x509)
         certs = []
diff -Naur a/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_pkcs7.py b/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_pkcs7.py
--- a/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_pkcs7.py	2023-12-02 16:06:27.037247977 +0800
+++ b/tests/hazmat/primitives/test_pkcs7.py	2023-12-02 16:03:19.251094333 +0800
@@ -80,6 +80,12 @@
                 mode="rb",
             )
 
+    def test_load_pkcs7_empty_certificates(self):
+        der = b"\x30\x0B\x06\x09\x2A\x86\x48\x86\xF7\x0D\x01\x07\x02"
+
+        certificates = pkcs7.load_der_pkcs7_certificates(der)
+        assert certificates == []
+
 
 # We have no public verification API and won't be adding one until we get
 # some requirements from users so this function exists to give us basic