diff --git a/libcontainer/env.go b/libcontainer/env.go
index 71b2f69d0..96a357c20 100644
--- a/libcontainer/env.go
+++ b/libcontainer/env.go
@@ -22,10 +22,7 @@ import (
 //
 // Returns the prepared environment.
 func prepareEnv(env []string, uid int) ([]string, error) {
-	if env == nil {
-		return nil, nil
-	}
-	var homeIsSet bool
+	homeIsSet := false
 
 	// Deduplication code based on dedupEnv from Go 1.22 os/exec.
 
diff --git a/libcontainer/env_test.go b/libcontainer/env_test.go
index 18dc52e88..f7b3a21cf 100644
--- a/libcontainer/env_test.go
+++ b/libcontainer/env_test.go
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ func TestPrepareEnv(t *testing.T) {
 	tests := []struct {
 		env, wantEnv []string
 	}{
+		{
+			env:     nil,
+			wantEnv: []string{home},
+		},
 		{
 			env:     []string{},
 			wantEnv: []string{home},
diff --git a/tests/integration/env.bats b/tests/integration/env.bats
index 4521fe735..e40184d55 100644
--- a/tests/integration/env.bats
+++ b/tests/integration/env.bats
@@ -126,3 +126,20 @@ _EOF_
 	[[ "$output" != *'TERM='* ]]
 	[[ "$output" != *'PATH='* ]]
 }
+
+@test "env HOME is set for runc exec -p with no process.env" {
+	runc run -d --console-socket "$CONSOLE_SOCKET" test_busybox
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+
+	# "env" is not set.
+	cat <<_EOF_ >process.json
+{
+    "args": ["/bin/env"],
+    "cwd": "/"
+}
+_EOF_
+	runc exec -p process.json test_busybox
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	# Env should have HOME set from container's /etc/passwd.
+	[[ "$output" == *'HOME=/root'* ]]
+}