diff --git a/security/nss/lib/smime/cmsencode.c b/security/nss/lib/smime/cmsencode.c
index 0b0eb1d2c20..8f14d42d68a 100644
--- a/security/nss/lib/smime/cmsencode.c
+++ b/security/nss/lib/smime/cmsencode.c
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 /*
  * CMS encoding.
  *
- * $Id: cmsencode.c,v 1.5 2004-04-25 15:03:16 gerv%gerv.net Exp $
+ * $Id: cmsencode.c,v 1.6 2006-06-08 22:01:02 nelson%bolyard.com Exp $
  */
 
 #include "cmslocal.h"
@@ -563,8 +563,10 @@ NSS_CMSEncoder_Start(NSSCMSMessage *cmsg,
 	rv = SECFailure;
 	break;
     }
-    if (rv != SECSuccess)
+    if (rv != SECSuccess) {
+	PORT_Free(p7ecx);
 	return NULL;
+    }
 
     /* Initialize the BER encoder.
      * Note that this will not encode anything until the first call to SEC_ASN1EncoderUpdate */