diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/connection_plugins/fireball2.py b/lib/ansible/runner/connection_plugins/fireball2.py
index b9a4748039..30c56442a2 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner/connection_plugins/fireball2.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/connection_plugins/fireball2.py
@@ -85,11 +85,17 @@ class Connection(object):
         header_len = 8 # size of a packed unsigned long long
         data = b""
         while len(data) < header_len:
-            data += self.conn.recv(1024)
+            d = self.conn.recv(1024)
+            if not d:
+                return None
+            data += d
         data_len = struct.unpack('Q',data[:header_len])[0]
         data = data[header_len:]
         while len(data) < data_len:
-            data += self.conn.recv(1024)
+            d = self.conn.recv(1024)
+            if not d:
+                return None
+            data += d
         return data
 
     def exec_command(self, cmd, tmp_path, sudo_user, sudoable=False, executable='/bin/sh'):
diff --git a/library/utilities/fireball2 b/library/utilities/fireball2
index e92d0817d8..9d32e1ddd2 100644
--- a/library/utilities/fireball2
+++ b/library/utilities/fireball2
@@ -163,7 +163,10 @@ class ThreadedTCPRequestHandler(SocketServer.BaseRequestHandler):
         data_len = struct.unpack('Q',data[:header_len])[0]
         data = data[header_len:]
         while len(data) < data_len:
-            data += self.request.recv(1024)
+            d = self.request.recv(1024)
+            if not d:
+                return None
+            data += d
         return data
 
     def handle(self):