diff --git a/src/hash-helper.cc b/src/hash-helper.cc
index 04b52b2..33c0e77 100644
--- a/src/hash-helper.cc
+++ b/src/hash-helper.cc
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@
       return retval;
     }
 
-  
+  retval->m_buf = new unsigned char [EVP_MAX_MD_SIZE];
   
   unsigned char *end = copy (string_to_binary (hashInTextEncoding.begin ()),
                             string_to_binary (hashInTextEncoding.end ()),