diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index fb3e069d5..b2075c769 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@
 
  Changes between 0.9.6 and 0.9.6a  [xx XXX 2001]
 
+  *) Fix a memory leak in err.c: free err_data string if necessary.
+     [Bodo Moeller]
+
   *) Implement ssl23_peek (analogous to ssl23_read), which previously
      did not exist.
      [Bodo Moeller]
diff --git a/crypto/err/err.c b/crypto/err/err.c
index bfecb86c7..74242b62f 100644
--- a/crypto/err/err.c
+++ b/crypto/err/err.c
@@ -462,7 +462,15 @@ static unsigned long get_error_values(int inc, const char **file, int *line,
 			}
 		}
 
-	if (data != NULL)
+	if (data == NULL)
+		{
+		if (inc && (es->err_data[i] != NULL) && (es->err_data_flags[i] & ERR_TXT_MALLOCED))
+			{
+			OPENSSL_free(es->err_data[i]);
+			es->err_data[i] = NULL;
+			}
+		}
+	else
 		{
 		if (es->err_data[i] == NULL)
 			{