diff --git a/libavformat/flic.c b/libavformat/flic.c
index f5e9e84c47..bef70c188a 100644
--- a/libavformat/flic.c
+++ b/libavformat/flic.c
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ static int flic_read_header(AVFormatContext *s)
         avio_seek(pb, 12, SEEK_SET);
 
         /* send over abbreviated FLIC header chunk */
-        av_free(st->codec->extradata);
+        av_freep(&st->codec->extradata);
         if (ff_alloc_extradata(st->codec, 12))
             return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
         memcpy(st->codec->extradata, header, 12);