diff --git a/libavformat/rtmppkt.c b/libavformat/rtmppkt.c
index 37fbb5fc16..e952091714 100644
--- a/libavformat/rtmppkt.c
+++ b/libavformat/rtmppkt.c
@@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ int ff_rtmp_packet_create(RTMPPacket *pkt, int channel_id, RTMPPacketType type,
                           int timestamp, int size)
 {
     if (size) {
-        pkt->data = av_malloc(size);
+        pkt->data = av_realloc(NULL, size);
         if (!pkt->data)
             return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
     }