diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/path.cc b/winsup/cygwin/path.cc
index 43dee06649..1807847cff 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/path.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/path.cc
@@ -3466,8 +3466,7 @@ arg_heuristic_with_exclusions (char const * const arg, char const * exclusions,
     {
       return ((char *)arg);
     }
-  arg_result = (char *)malloc (strlen (stack_path)+1);
-  strcpy (arg_result, stack_path);
+  arg_result = (char *)realloc (stack_path, strlen (stack_path)+1);
   // Windows doesn't like empty entries in PATH env. variables (;;)
   char* semisemi = strstr(arg_result, ";;");
   while (semisemi)