diff --git a/.gitlab-ci-scripts/set-prerelease-version.sh b/.gitlab-ci-scripts/set-prerelease-version.sh
index 144e6760..cbcc2c3d 100755
--- a/.gitlab-ci-scripts/set-prerelease-version.sh
+++ b/.gitlab-ci-scripts/set-prerelease-version.sh
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ PREREL=$(git rev-list --count HEAD ^"$MASTER_BRANCH")
 
 # use version file:
 VERSION=$(cat $VERSION_FILE)
+VERSION_ESCAPED=$(echo ${VERSION} | sed s/\\\./\\\\./g); echo $VER
 PR_VERSION="${VERSION}-${DEVSTRING}${PREREL}"
 echo "$PR_VERSION" > $VERSION_FILE
 echo "$PR_VERSION"
@@ -72,17 +73,19 @@ TILDE_VERSION="$(echo $PR_VERSION | sed 's/-/~/g')"
         | head -n 1 \
         | cut -d\( -f 2 \
         | cut -d\) -f 1)
+    DEBIAN_VERSION_ESCAPED=$(echo ${DEBIAN_VERSION} | sed s/\\\./\\\\./g); echo $VER
     NEW_DEB_VERSION="${TILDE_VERSION}-1"
-    sed s%${DEBIAN_VERSION}%${NEW_DEB_VERSION}% -i debian/changelog
+    sed s%${DEBIAN_VERSION_ESCAPED}%${NEW_DEB_VERSION}% -i debian/changelog
 }
 
+
 # lets see if RPM also needs a version to be set
 SPEC_FILES=$(ls rpm/*spec)
 [ -z "${SPEC_FILES}" ] || {
-    [ -z "${VERSION}" ] || {
+    [ -z "${VERSION_ESCAPED}" ] || {
         for SPEC_FILE in $SPEC_FILES; do
-            grep -q "$VERSION" "$SPEC_FILE" && { # version found, needs update
-                sed "s/${VERSION}/${TILDE_VERSION}/" -i "$SPEC_FILE"
+            grep -q "$VERSION_ESCAPED" "$SPEC_FILE" && { # version found, needs update
+                sed "s/${VERSION_ESCAPED}/${TILDE_VERSION}/" -i "$SPEC_FILE"
             }
         done
     }
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 882ea2cd..af231ca1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@
 <!-- ### Dependencies -->
 <!--  -->
 
+## oidc-agent 5.2.2
+
+### Bugfixes
+
+- Fixed a bug where `oidc-agent` would crash due to a segmentation fault if `~/.config/oidc-agent/issuer.config` was not present.
+  
 ## oidc-agent 5.2.1
 
 ### Bugfixes
diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
index ce0a1537..2e9dd663 100644
--- a/LICENSE
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 MIT License
 
-Copyright (c) 2017 - 2024 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Steinbuch Centre for Computing
+Copyright (c) 2017 - 2024 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Scientific Computing Center
 
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 26d99a28..ce7f2b42 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-5.2.1
+5.2.2
diff --git a/src/utils/config/issuerConfig.c b/src/utils/config/issuerConfig.c
index 1d8862f5..5d1e7fc4 100644
--- a/src/utils/config/issuerConfig.c
+++ b/src/utils/config/issuerConfig.c
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ static char* updateIssuerConfigFileFormat(char* content) {
 
 static void readIssuerConfigs() {
   char* content = readOidcFile(ISSUER_CONFIG_FILENAME);
-  if (!isJSONArray(content)) {  // old config file
+  if (content && !isJSONArray(content)) {  // old config file
     content = updateIssuerConfigFileFormat(content);
   }
   collectJSONIssuers(content);