diff --git a/bfd/ChangeLog b/bfd/ChangeLog
index 63cd5f325e..31613e87fb 100644
--- a/bfd/ChangeLog
+++ b/bfd/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 2011-03-06  Michael Snyder  <msnyder@vmware.com>
 
+	* compress.c (bfd_compress_section_contents): Check for out of mem.
+
 	* elf64-x86-64.c (elf_x86_64_relocate_section): Document
 	that case statement falls through intentionally.
 
diff --git a/bfd/compress.c b/bfd/compress.c
index a526ea99c7..669033c5ec 100644
--- a/bfd/compress.c
+++ b/bfd/compress.c
@@ -100,6 +100,9 @@ bfd_compress_section_contents (bfd *abfd ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED,
   compressed_size = compressBound (uncompressed_size) + 12;
   compressed_buffer = (bfd_byte *) bfd_malloc (compressed_size);
 
+  if (compressed_buffer == NULL)
+    return FALSE;
+
   if (compress ((Bytef*) compressed_buffer + 12,
 		&compressed_size,
 		(const Bytef*) uncompressed_buffer,