diff --git a/modules/imgproc/src/drawing.cpp b/modules/imgproc/src/drawing.cpp
index cbd238aca9..40ba22430f 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/src/drawing.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/src/drawing.cpp
@@ -939,6 +939,7 @@ void ellipse2Poly( Point center, Size axes, int angle,
     }
 
     // If there are no points, it's a zero-size polygon
+    CV_Assert( !pts.empty() );
     if (pts.size() == 1) {
         pts.assign(2, center);
     }
@@ -1001,6 +1002,7 @@ void ellipse2Poly( Point2d center, Size2d axes, int angle,
     }
 
     // If there are no points, it's a zero-size polygon
+    CV_Assert( !pts.empty() );
     if( pts.size() == 1) {
         pts.assign(2,center);
     }
@@ -1021,7 +1023,6 @@ EllipseEx( Mat& img, Point2l center, Size2l axes,
 
     std::vector<Point2l> v;
     Point2l prevPt(0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF);
-    v.resize(0);
     for (unsigned int i = 0; i < _v.size(); ++i)
     {
         Point2l pt;
@@ -1036,7 +1037,7 @@ EllipseEx( Mat& img, Point2l center, Size2l axes,
     }
 
     // If there are no points, it's a zero-size polygon
-    if (v.size() == 1) {
+    if (v.size() <= 1) {
         v.assign(2, center);
     }
 
diff --git a/modules/imgproc/test/test_drawing.cpp b/modules/imgproc/test/test_drawing.cpp
index 23208ab881..02095cd6b7 100644
--- a/modules/imgproc/test/test_drawing.cpp
+++ b/modules/imgproc/test/test_drawing.cpp
@@ -921,4 +921,11 @@ TEST(Drawing, circle_overflow)
     cv::circle(matrix, cv::Point(275, -2147483318), 2147483647, kBlue, 1, 8, 0);
 }
 
+TEST(Drawing, circle_memory_access)
+{
+    cv::Mat1b matrix = cv::Mat1b::zeros(10, 10);
+    cv::Scalar kBlue = cv::Scalar(0, 0, 255);
+    cv::circle(matrix, cv::Point(-1, -1), 0, kBlue, 2, 8, 16);
+}
+
 }} // namespace