diff --git a/builtin/submodule--helper.c b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
index 5c9a59083f..23c4f8d576 100644
--- a/builtin/submodule--helper.c
+++ b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
@@ -583,10 +583,11 @@ static void print_status(unsigned int flags, char state, const char *path,
 	printf("%c%s %s", state, oid_to_hex(oid), displaypath);
 
 	if (state == ' ' || state == '+') {
-		const char *name = compute_rev_name(path, oid_to_hex(oid));
+		char *name = compute_rev_name(path, oid_to_hex(oid));
 
 		if (name)
 			printf(" (%s)", name);
+		free(name);
 	}
 
 	printf("\n");