diff -urNp ncompress-4.2.4-orig/compress42.c ncompress-4.2.4/compress42.c
--- ncompress-4.2.4-orig/compress42.c	2008-12-01 13:50:17.000000000 +0100
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/compress42.c	2008-12-01 13:53:03.000000000 +0100
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@
  */
 #include	<unistd.h>
 #include	<stdio.h>
+#include  <stdlib.h>
 #include	<fcntl.h>
 #include	<ctype.h>
 #include	<signal.h>
@@ -696,7 +697,13 @@ main(argc, argv)
             }
         }
 
-        filelist = fileptr = (char **)malloc(argc*sizeof(char *));
+        filelist = (char **)malloc(argc*sizeof(char *));
+        if (filelist == NULL)
+          {
+             fprintf(stderr, "Cannot allocate memory for file list.\n");
+             exit (1);
+          }
+        fileptr = filelist;
     	*filelist = NULL;
 
     	if((progname = rindex(argv[0], '/')) != 0)
@@ -836,6 +843,7 @@ nextarg:	continue;
 				decompress(0, 1);
 		}
         
+    free(filelist);
 		exit((exit_code== -1) ? 1:exit_code);
                 return 0;
 	}