diff --git a/src/ssl.c b/src/ssl.c
index d5971c734..af3cb613c 100644
--- a/src/ssl.c
+++ b/src/ssl.c
@@ -9552,6 +9552,7 @@ int wolfSSL_X509_get_ext_by_NID(const WOLFSSL_X509* x509, int nid, int lastPos)
             CA_TYPE,
             NO_VERIFY, NULL) < 0) {
         WOLFSSL_MSG("\tCertificate parsing failed");
+        FreeDecodedCert(&cert);
         return WOLFSSL_FATAL_ERROR;
     }