diff --git a/libavformat/flvdec.c b/libavformat/flvdec.c
index 899a0368f4..ee73dd7502 100644
--- a/libavformat/flvdec.c
+++ b/libavformat/flvdec.c
@@ -620,7 +620,7 @@ static int flv_read_close(AVFormatContext *s)
 
 static int flv_get_extradata(AVFormatContext *s, AVStream *st, int size)
 {
-    av_free(st->codec->extradata);
+    av_freep(&st->codec->extradata);
     if (ff_get_extradata(st->codec, s->pb, size) < 0)
         return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
     return 0;