diff --git a/libavformat/rtmppkt.c b/libavformat/rtmppkt.c
index 92172dc366..4f79487ee0 100644
--- a/libavformat/rtmppkt.c
+++ b/libavformat/rtmppkt.c
@@ -396,7 +396,7 @@ 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);
     }