diff --git a/engines/http.c b/engines/http.c
index 56dc7d1b14..83cfe8bb71 100644
--- a/engines/http.c
+++ b/engines/http.c
@@ -250,6 +250,7 @@ static char *_aws_uriencode(const char *uri)
 	for (i = 0; (c = uri[i]); i++) {
 		if (n > bufsize-5) {
 			log_err("encoding the URL failed\n");
+			free(r);
 			return NULL;
 		}