diff --git a/builtin/submodule--helper.c b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
index 1cc82a134d..bc6c8a71ea 100644
--- a/builtin/submodule--helper.c
+++ b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ static int get_default_remote_submodule(const char *module_path, char **default_
 	struct repository subrepo;
 	const char *remote_name = NULL;
 	char *url = NULL;
+	int ret = 0;
 
 	sub = submodule_from_path(the_repository, null_oid(the_hash_algo), module_path);
 	if (sub && sub->url) {
@@ -96,9 +97,11 @@ static int get_default_remote_submodule(const char *module_path, char **default_
 	}
 
 	if (repo_submodule_init(&subrepo, the_repository, module_path,
-				null_oid(the_hash_algo)) < 0)
-		return die_message(_("could not get a repository handle for submodule '%s'"),
+				null_oid(the_hash_algo)) < 0) {
+		ret = die_message(_("could not get a repository handle for submodule '%s'"),
 				   module_path);
+		goto out;
+	}
 
 	/* Look up by URL first */
 	if (url)
@@ -108,10 +111,11 @@ static int get_default_remote_submodule(const char *module_path, char **default_
 
 	*default_remote = xstrdup(remote_name);
 
+out:
 	repo_clear(&subrepo);
 	free(url);
 
-	return 0;
+	return ret;
 }
 
 static int module_get_default_remote(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
diff --git a/t/t7426-submodule-get-default-remote.sh b/t/t7426-submodule-get-default-remote.sh
index b842af9a2d..0379c9f044 100755
--- a/t/t7426-submodule-get-default-remote.sh
+++ b/t/t7426-submodule-get-default-remote.sh
@@ -60,6 +60,23 @@ test_expect_success 'get-default-remote fails with non-submodule path' '
 	)
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'get-default-remote fails with uninitialized submodule' '
+	test_when_finished "
+		git -C super config -f .gitmodules --remove-section submodule.uninitialized &&
+		git -C super update-index --force-remove uninitialized
+	" &&
+	(
+		cd super &&
+		git config -f .gitmodules submodule.uninitialized.path uninitialized &&
+		git config -f .gitmodules submodule.uninitialized.url ../sub &&
+		head=$(git -C ../sub rev-parse HEAD) &&
+		git update-index --add --cacheinfo 160000,$head,uninitialized &&
+		test_must_fail git submodule--helper get-default-remote \
+			uninitialized 2>err &&
+		test_grep "could not get a repository handle" err
+	)
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'get-default-remote fails without path argument' '
 	(
 		cd super &&