diff --git a/src/groups.c b/src/groups.c
index a62f2f56..3a8e1871 100644
--- a/src/groups.c
+++ b/src/groups.c
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ int main (int argc, char **argv)
 	GETGROUPS_T *groups;
 
 	sys_ngroups = sysconf (_SC_NGROUPS_MAX);
-	groups = MALLOC(sys_ngroups, GETGROUPS_T);
+	groups = XMALLOC(sys_ngroups, GETGROUPS_T);
 
 	(void) setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
 	(void) bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
diff --git a/src/usermod.c b/src/usermod.c
index 4fe52c8a..9cbc504c 100644
--- a/src/usermod.c
+++ b/src/usermod.c
@@ -2161,7 +2161,7 @@ int main (int argc, char **argv)
 #endif
 
 	sys_ngroups = sysconf (_SC_NGROUPS_MAX);
-	user_groups = MALLOC(sys_ngroups + 1, char *);
+	user_groups = XMALLOC(sys_ngroups + 1, char *);
 	user_groups[0] = NULL;
 
 	is_shadow_pwd = spw_file_present ();