diff --git a/libavformat/avidec.c b/libavformat/avidec.c
index df78925d55..e3cd844169 100644
--- a/libavformat/avidec.c
+++ b/libavformat/avidec.c
@@ -306,8 +306,10 @@ static int avi_read_tag(AVFormatContext *s, AVStream *st, uint32_t tag,
     value = av_malloc(size + 1);
     if (!value)
         return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
-    if (avio_read(pb, value, size) != size)
+    if (avio_read(pb, value, size) != size) {
+        av_freep(&value);
         return AVERROR_INVALIDDATA;
+    }
     value[size] = 0;
 
     AV_WL32(key, tag);