diff --git a/releasenotes.md b/releasenotes.md
index 88f2d7e96..1080dd563 100644
--- a/releasenotes.md
+++ b/releasenotes.md
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
 - Passing a single value to `@wasm` would ignore the renaming.
 - `*(int*)1` incorrectly yielded an assert in LLVM IR lowering #2584.
 - Fix issue when tests encounter a segmentation fault or similar.
+- With project.json, when overriding with an empty list the base settings would still be used. #2583
 
 ### Stdlib changes
 
diff --git a/src/build/common_build.c b/src/build/common_build.c
index dccbf176d..b049db34f 100644
--- a/src/build/common_build.c
+++ b/src/build/common_build.c
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ const char **get_string_array(BuildParseContext context, JSONObject *table, cons
 		return NULL;
 	}
 	if (value->type != J_ARRAY) goto NOT_ARRAY;
-	const char **values = NULL;
+	const char **values = VECNEW(const char *, 16);
 	FOREACH(JSONObject *, val, value->elements)
 	{
 		if (val->type != J_STRING) goto NOT_ARRAY;