diff --git a/lib/common/xml_attr.c b/lib/common/xml_attr.c
index 0afae95c2e..cd5b23f663 100644
--- a/lib/common/xml_attr.c
+++ b/lib/common/xml_attr.c
@@ -1,89 +1,95 @@
 /*
  * Copyright 2004-2024 the Pacemaker project contributors
  *
  * The version control history for this file may have further details.
  *
  * This source code is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License
  * version 2.1 or later (LGPLv2.1+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
  */
 
 #include <crm_internal.h>
 
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <time.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <stdarg.h>
 #include <bzlib.h>
 
 #include <libxml/parser.h>
 #include <libxml/tree.h>
 #include <libxml/xmlIO.h>  /* xmlAllocOutputBuffer */
 
 #include <crm/crm.h>
 #include <crm/common/xml.h>
 #include <crm/common/xml_internal.h>  // PCMK__XML_LOG_BASE, etc.
 #include "crmcommon_private.h"
 
 void
 pcmk__mark_xml_attr_dirty(xmlAttr *a) 
 {
     xmlNode *parent = a->parent;
     xml_node_private_t *nodepriv = a->_private;
 
     pcmk__set_xml_flags(nodepriv, pcmk__xf_dirty|pcmk__xf_modified);
     pcmk__clear_xml_flags(nodepriv, pcmk__xf_deleted);
     pcmk__mark_xml_node_dirty(parent);
 }
 
 // This also clears attribute's flags if not marked as deleted
 bool
 pcmk__marked_as_deleted(xmlAttrPtr a, void *user_data)
 {
     xml_node_private_t *nodepriv = a->_private;
 
     if (pcmk_is_set(nodepriv->flags, pcmk__xf_deleted)) {
         return true;
     }
     nodepriv->flags = pcmk__xf_none;
     return false;
 }
 
 /*!
  * \internal
  * \brief Append an XML attribute to a buffer
  *
  * \param[in]     attr     Attribute to append
  * \param[in,out] buffer   Where to append the content (must not be \p NULL)
  */
 void
 pcmk__dump_xml_attr(const xmlAttr *attr, GString *buffer)
 {
     const char *name = NULL;
     const char *value = NULL;
     char *value_esc = NULL;
     xml_node_private_t *nodepriv = NULL;
 
     if (attr == NULL || attr->children == NULL) {
         return;
     }
 
     nodepriv = attr->_private;
     if (nodepriv && pcmk_is_set(nodepriv->flags, pcmk__xf_deleted)) {
         return;
     }
 
     name = (const char *) attr->name;
     value = (const char *) attr->children->content;
+    if (value == NULL) {
+        /* Don't print anything for unset attribute. Any null-indicator value,
+         * including the empty string, could also be a real value that needs to
+         * be treated differently from "unset".
+         */
+        return;
+    }
+
     if (pcmk__xml_needs_escape(value, true)) {
         value_esc = pcmk__xml_escape(value, true);
         value = value_esc;
     }
 
-    pcmk__g_strcat(buffer, " ", name, "=\"", pcmk__s(value, "<null>"), "\"",
-                   NULL);
-
+    pcmk__g_strcat(buffer, " ", name, "=\"", value, "\"", NULL);
     free(value_esc);
 }