diff --git a/libavcodec/h264_parser.c b/libavcodec/h264_parser.c
index 7b9fd1a766..5a62f5c95c 100644
--- a/libavcodec/h264_parser.c
+++ b/libavcodec/h264_parser.c
@@ -547,7 +547,7 @@ static void close(AVCodecParserContext *s)
     H264Context *h   = s->priv_data;
     ParseContext *pc = &h->parse_context;
 
-    av_free(pc->buffer);
+    av_freep(&pc->buffer);
     ff_h264_free_context(h);
 }