diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Vector/Transforms/VectorMaskElimination.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Vector/Transforms/VectorMaskElimination.cpp
index 8a181a429e41c..6f75ce7a04511 100644
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/Vector/Transforms/VectorMaskElimination.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/Vector/Transforms/VectorMaskElimination.cpp
@@ -99,6 +99,10 @@ void eliminateVectorMasks(IRRewriter &rewriter, FunctionOpInterface function,
   if (!vscaleRange)
     return;
 
+  // Early exit for functions without a body.
+  if (function.isExternal())
+    return;
+
   OpBuilder::InsertionGuard g(rewriter);
 
   // Build worklist so we can safely insert new ops in
diff --git a/mlir/test/Dialect/Vector/eliminate-masks.mlir b/mlir/test/Dialect/Vector/eliminate-masks.mlir
index 0b78687fb9832..88be7e529bb9e 100644
--- a/mlir/test/Dialect/Vector/eliminate-masks.mlir
+++ b/mlir/test/Dialect/Vector/eliminate-masks.mlir
@@ -45,6 +45,12 @@ func.func @eliminate_redundant_masks_through_insert_and_extracts(%tensor: tensor
 
 // -----
 
+// Test to ensure that functions without a body are skipped.
+// CHECK-LABEL: func.func private @negative_no_func_body()
+func.func private @negative_no_func_body()
+
+// -----
+
 // CHECK-LABEL: @negative_extract_slice_size_shrink
 // CHECK-NOT: vector.constant_mask
 // CHECK: %[[MASK:.*]] = vector.create_mask