diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index a62d2b55..45953fac 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 -*-Mode: outline-*-
 
+* News for v0.98.6:
+
+** Fix address-leak triggered by invalid byte-order.  Fixed by Andreas Schwab.
+
 * News for v0.98.5:
 
 ** Fix a typo in the man-page of unw_create_addr_space().
diff --git a/src/ia64/Gcreate_addr_space.c b/src/ia64/Gcreate_addr_space.c
index 6178cbf3..a3524a0a 100644
--- a/src/ia64/Gcreate_addr_space.c
+++ b/src/ia64/Gcreate_addr_space.c
@@ -33,14 +33,7 @@ unw_create_addr_space (unw_accessors_t *a, int byte_order)
 #ifdef UNW_LOCAL_ONLY
   return NULL;
 #else
-  unw_addr_space_t as = malloc (sizeof (*as));
-
-  if (!as)
-    return NULL;
-
-  memset (as, 0, sizeof (*as));
-
-  as->acc = *a;
+  unw_addr_space_t as;
 
   /*
    * IA-64 supports only big or little-endian, not weird stuff like
@@ -51,6 +44,15 @@ unw_create_addr_space (unw_accessors_t *a, int byte_order)
       && byte_order != __BIG_ENDIAN)
     return NULL;
 
+  as = malloc (sizeof (*as));
+
+  if (!as)
+    return NULL;
+
+  memset (as, 0, sizeof (*as));
+
+  as->acc = *a;
+
   if (byte_order == 0)
     /* use host default: */
     as->big_endian = (__BYTE_ORDER == __BIG_ENDIAN);