diff --git a/src/netops.c b/src/netops.c
index fd788bc1d..cc94d0350 100644
--- a/src/netops.c
+++ b/src/netops.c
@@ -606,26 +606,26 @@ int gitno_extract_url_parts(
 	start = url;
 	if (at && at < slash) {
 		start = at+1;
-		*username = git__strndup(url, at - url);
+		*username = git__substrdup(url, at - url);
 	}
 
 	if (colon && colon < at) {
 		git__free(*username);
-		*username = git__strndup(url, colon-url);
-		*password = git__strndup(colon+1, at-colon-1);
+		*username = git__substrdup(url, colon-url);
+		*password = git__substrdup(colon+1, at-colon-1);
 		colon = strchr(at, ':');
 	}
 
 	if (colon == NULL) {
 		*port = git__strdup(default_port);
 	} else {
-		*port = git__strndup(colon + 1, slash - colon - 1);
+		*port = git__substrdup(colon + 1, slash - colon - 1);
 	}
 	GITERR_CHECK_ALLOC(*port);
 
 	end = colon == NULL ? slash : colon;
 
-	*host = git__strndup(start, end - start);
+	*host = git__substrdup(start, end - start);
 	GITERR_CHECK_ALLOC(*host);
 
 	return 0;
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index e75d777a8..e9edd84a3 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -51,11 +51,7 @@ GIT_INLINE(char *) git__strndup(const char *str, size_t n)
 	while (length < n && str[length])
 		++length;
 
-	ptr = (char*)malloc(length + 1);
-	if (!ptr) {
-		giterr_set_oom();
-		return NULL;
-	}
+	ptr = (char*)git__malloc(length + 1);
 
 	if (length)
 		memcpy(ptr, str, length);
@@ -65,6 +61,14 @@ GIT_INLINE(char *) git__strndup(const char *str, size_t n)
 	return ptr;
 }
 
+/* NOTE: This doesn't do null or '\0' checking.  Watch those boundaries! */
+GIT_INLINE(char *) git__substrdup(const char *start, size_t n)
+{
+	char *ptr = (char*)git__calloc(n+1, sizeof(char));
+	memcpy(ptr, start, n);
+	return ptr;
+}
+
 GIT_INLINE(void *) git__realloc(void *ptr, size_t size)
 {
 	void *new_ptr = realloc(ptr, size);