diff --git a/lib/crypt-port.h b/lib/crypt-port.h
index a7079396..e58ebe14 100644
--- a/lib/crypt-port.h
+++ b/lib/crypt-port.h
@@ -471,9 +471,8 @@ extern void
 make_failure_token (const char *setting, char *output, int size);
 
 /* The base-64 encoding table used by most hashing methods.
-   (bcrypt uses a slightly different encoding.)  Size 65
-   because it's used as a C string in a few places.  */
-extern const unsigned char ascii64[65];
+   (bcrypt uses a slightly different encoding.)  */
+extern const unsigned char *ascii64;
 
 /* Same table gets used with other names in various places.  */
 #define b64t   ((const char *) ascii64)
diff --git a/lib/util-base64.c b/lib/util-base64.c
index d55461fd..19e83b2a 100644
--- a/lib/util-base64.c
+++ b/lib/util-base64.c
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@
 
 #include "crypt-port.h"
 
-const unsigned char ascii64[65] =
-  "./0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
+const unsigned char *ascii64 =
+  (const unsigned char *)
+  "./0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
 /* 0000000000111111111122222222223333333333444444444455555555556666 */
 /* 0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123 */
-  "\x00";