diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d5bc2d0d5d0..5e8334a8b5e 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ PHP                                                                        NEWS
 - Fixed PECL bug #8816 (issue in php_oci_statement_fetch with more than one 
   piecewise column) (jeff at badtz-maru dot com, Tony)
 - Fixed bug #39067 (getDeclaringClass() and private properties). (Tony)
+- Fixed bug #38198 (possible crash when COM reports an exception). (Ilia)
 - Fixed bug #37262 (var_export() does not escape \0 character). (Ilia)
 
 05 Oct 2006, PHP 5.2.0RC5
diff --git a/ext/com_dotnet/com_com.c b/ext/com_dotnet/com_com.c
index e8dd8d2e6fa..706dca6fe1b 100644
--- a/ext/com_dotnet/com_com.c
+++ b/ext/com_dotnet/com_com.c
@@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ HRESULT php_com_invoke_helper(php_com_dotnet_object *obj, DISPID id_member,
 {
 	HRESULT hr;
 	unsigned int arg_err;
-	EXCEPINFO e;
+	EXCEPINFO e = {0};
 
 	hr = IDispatch_Invoke(V_DISPATCH(&obj->v), id_member,
 		&IID_NULL, LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT, flags, disp_params, v, &e, &arg_err);