diff --git a/.mailmap b/.mailmap
index d4e547b9ed..d8558a2ec3 100644
--- a/.mailmap
+++ b/.mailmap
@@ -121,3 +121,4 @@ Andrew Kirillov <akirillo@uk.ibm.com>
 Stephen Farrell <stephen.farrell@cs.tcd.ie>
 Calvin Ruocco <calvin.ruocco@vector.com>
 Hamza Bensliman <benslimanhamza99@gmail.com>
+Kaixuan Li <kaixuan.li@ntu.edu.sg>
diff --git a/src/config2setopts.c b/src/config2setopts.c
index 1a82edeb70..47078884b0 100644
--- a/src/config2setopts.c
+++ b/src/config2setopts.c
@@ -208,13 +208,20 @@ static CURLcode ssh_setopts(struct OperationConfig *config, CURL *curl,
 
   if(!config->insecure_ok) {
     char *known = config->knownhosts;
-    if(!known)
-      known = findfile(".ssh/known_hosts", FALSE);
+    if(!known) {
+      char *found = findfile(".ssh/known_hosts", FALSE);
+      if(found) {
+        known = curlx_strdup(found);
+        curl_free(found);
+        if(!known)
+          return CURLE_OUT_OF_MEMORY;
+      }
+    }
     if(known) {
       result = my_setopt_str(curl, CURLOPT_SSH_KNOWNHOSTS, known);
       if(result) {
         config->knownhosts = NULL;
-        curl_free(known);
+        curlx_free(known);
         return result;
       }
       /* store it in global to avoid repeated checks */
diff --git a/src/tool_getparam.c b/src/tool_getparam.c
index 791a55c790..225defc429 100644
--- a/src/tool_getparam.c
+++ b/src/tool_getparam.c
@@ -1267,10 +1267,16 @@ static ParameterError parse_ech(struct OperationConfig *config,
         curlx_fclose(file);
       if(err)
         return err;
-      config->ech_config = curl_maprintf("ecl:%s", tmpcfg);
-      curlx_free(tmpcfg);
-      if(!config->ech_config)
-        return PARAM_NO_MEM;
+      {
+        char *tmp = curl_maprintf("ecl:%s", tmpcfg);
+        curlx_free(tmpcfg);
+        if(!tmp)
+          return PARAM_NO_MEM;
+        config->ech_config = curlx_strdup(tmp);
+        curl_free(tmp);
+        if(!config->ech_config)
+          return PARAM_NO_MEM;
+      }
     } /* file done */
   }
   else {