diff --git a/changes/bug7816.024 b/changes/bug7816.024
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6ed6b74858
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/bug7816.024
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+  o Minor bugfixes:
+    - Avoid leaking IPv6 policy content if we fail to format it into
+      a router descriptor. Spotted by Coverity. Fixes part of 7816;
+      bugfix on 0.2.4.7-alpha.
diff --git a/src/or/router.c b/src/or/router.c
index c7380cb444..e892ce0997 100644
--- a/src/or/router.c
+++ b/src/or/router.c
@@ -2190,6 +2190,7 @@ router_dump_router_to_string(char *s, size_t maxlen, routerinfo_t *router,
                             "ipv6-policy %s\n", p6);
       if (result<0) {
         log_warn(LD_BUG,"Descriptor printf of policy ran out of room");
+        tor_free(p6);
         return -1;
       }
       written += result;