diff --git a/libavutil/mem.c b/libavutil/mem.c
index a7f306a3a5..5aad97aa93 100644
--- a/libavutil/mem.c
+++ b/libavutil/mem.c
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ char *av_strdup(const char *s)
     char *ptr = NULL;
     if (s) {
         int len = strlen(s) + 1;
-        ptr = av_malloc(len);
+        ptr = av_realloc(NULL, len);
         if (ptr)
             memcpy(ptr, s, len);
     }