diff --git a/nhrpd/zbuf.c b/nhrpd/zbuf.c
index a23526af48..43ce974817 100644
--- a/nhrpd/zbuf.c
+++ b/nhrpd/zbuf.c
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ struct zbuf *zbuf_alloc(size_t size)
 {
 	struct zbuf *zb;
 
-	zb = XMALLOC(MTYPE_ZBUF_DATA, sizeof(*zb) + size);
+	zb = XCALLOC(MTYPE_ZBUF_DATA, sizeof(*zb) + size);
 
 	zbuf_init(zb, zb + 1, size, 0);
 	zb->allocated = 1;