diff --git a/embed/etcd.go b/embed/etcd.go
index 9c9ef7383..a034e04cc 100644
--- a/embed/etcd.go
+++ b/embed/etcd.go
@@ -176,7 +176,9 @@ func StartEtcd(inCfg *Config) (e *Etcd, err error) {
 
 	srvcfg.HostWhitelist = make(map[string]struct{}, len(cfg.HostWhitelist))
 	for _, h := range cfg.HostWhitelist {
-		srvcfg.HostWhitelist[h] = struct{}{}
+		if h != "" {
+			srvcfg.HostWhitelist[h] = struct{}{}
+		}
 	}
 
 	if e.Server, err = etcdserver.NewServer(srvcfg); err != nil {
diff --git a/etcdmain/config.go b/etcdmain/config.go
index 80ca6cb61..a78338b63 100644
--- a/etcdmain/config.go
+++ b/etcdmain/config.go
@@ -277,9 +277,12 @@ func (cfg *config) configFromCmdLine() error {
 		cfg.ec.ListenMetricsUrls = []url.URL(u)
 	}
 
-	hosts := strings.Split(cfg.cf.hostWhitelist, ",")
-	for i := range hosts {
-		hosts[i] = strings.TrimSpace(hosts[i])
+	hosts := []string{}
+	for _, h := range strings.Split(cfg.cf.hostWhitelist, ",") {
+		h = strings.TrimSpace(h)
+		if h != "" {
+			hosts = append(hosts, h)
+		}
 	}
 	cfg.ec.HostWhitelist = hosts