diff --git a/src/libgit2/oid.c b/src/libgit2/oid.c
index a550c4f69..db549f6ab 100644
--- a/src/libgit2/oid.c
+++ b/src/libgit2/oid.c
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ const git_oid git_oid__empty_tree_sha1 =
 	  { 0x4b, 0x82, 0x5d, 0xc6, 0x42, 0xcb, 0x6e, 0xb9, 0xa0, 0x60,
 	    0xe5, 0x4b, 0xf8, 0xd6, 0x92, 0x88, 0xfb, 0xee, 0x49, 0x04 });
 
+static const unsigned char git_oid_zero[GIT_OID_MAX_SIZE] = {0};
+
 static int oid_error_invalid(const char *msg)
 {
 	git_error_set(GIT_ERROR_INVALID, "unable to parse OID - %s", msg);
@@ -292,7 +294,7 @@ int git_oid_streq(const git_oid *oid_a, const char *str)
 int git_oid_is_zero(const git_oid *oid_a)
 {
 	const unsigned char *a = oid_a->id;
-	size_t size = git_oid_size(git_oid_type(oid_a)), i;
+	size_t size = git_oid_size(git_oid_type(oid_a));
 
 #ifdef GIT_EXPERIMENTAL_SHA256
 	if (!oid_a->type)
@@ -301,10 +303,7 @@ int git_oid_is_zero(const git_oid *oid_a)
 		return 0;
 #endif
 
-	for (i = 0; i < size; ++i, ++a)
-		if (*a != 0)
-			return 0;
-	return 1;
+	return git_oid_raw_cmp(a, git_oid_zero, size) == 0 ? 1 : 0;
 }
 
 #ifndef GIT_DEPRECATE_HARD