diff --git a/chef/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb b/chef/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/chef/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb
+++ b/chef/lib/chef/knife/core/subcommand_loader.rb
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ class Chef
         end
 
         # finally search ~/.chef/plugins/knife/*.rb
-        user_specific_files.concat Dir.glob(File.join(env['HOME'], '.chef', 'plugins', 'knife', '*.rb'))
+        user_specific_files.concat Dir.glob(File.join(env['HOME'], '.chef', 'plugins', 'knife', '*.rb')) if env['HOME']
 
         user_specific_files
       end
Don't try to load user-specific knife plugins if we don't know what the user's home directory is.