diff --git a/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.cpp b/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.cpp
index dca15f73ce..4cc82b9094 100644
--- a/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.cpp
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 
 #include <cerrno>
 #include <cstdio>
-#include <cstring>
 
 namespace esphome {
 
@@ -77,7 +76,7 @@ void ESPHomeOTAComponent::dump_config() {
                 "  Version: %d",
                 network::get_use_address().c_str(), this->port_, USE_OTA_VERSION);
 #ifdef USE_OTA_PASSWORD
-  if (this->password_ != nullptr) {
+  if (!this->password_.empty()) {
     ESP_LOGCONFIG(TAG, "  Password configured");
   }
 #endif
@@ -169,7 +168,7 @@ void ESPHomeOTAComponent::handle_() {
   this->writeall_(buf, 1);
 
 #ifdef USE_OTA_PASSWORD
-  if (this->password_ != nullptr) {
+  if (!this->password_.empty()) {
     buf[0] = ota::OTA_RESPONSE_REQUEST_AUTH;
     this->writeall_(buf, 1);
     md5::MD5Digest md5{};
@@ -188,7 +187,7 @@ void ESPHomeOTAComponent::handle_() {
 
     // prepare challenge
     md5.init();
-    md5.add(this->password_, strlen(this->password_));
+    md5.add(this->password_.c_str(), this->password_.length());
     // add nonce
     md5.add(sbuf, 32);
 
diff --git a/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.h b/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.h
index 7ff3ac437a..e0d09ff37e 100644
--- a/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.h
+++ b/esphome/components/esphome/ota/ota_esphome.h
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ namespace esphome {
 class ESPHomeOTAComponent : public ota::OTAComponent {
  public:
 #ifdef USE_OTA_PASSWORD
-  void set_auth_password(const char *password) { password_ = password; }
+  void set_auth_password(const std::string &password) { password_ = password; }
 #endif  // USE_OTA_PASSWORD
 
   /// Manually set the port OTA should listen on
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ class ESPHomeOTAComponent : public ota::OTAComponent {
   bool writeall_(const uint8_t *buf, size_t len);
 
 #ifdef USE_OTA_PASSWORD
-  const char *password_{nullptr};
+  std::string password_;
 #endif  // USE_OTA_PASSWORD
 
   uint16_t port_;