diff --git a/converter/other/bmptopnm.c b/converter/other/bmptopnm.c
index a069092..20a0331 100644
--- a/converter/other/bmptopnm.c	2018-12-29 17:32:28.000000000 +0100
+++ b/converter/other/bmptopnm.c	2019-02-07 17:37:09.551756261 +0100
@@ -1494,7 +1494,7 @@ readBmp(FILE *               const ifP,
         unsigned int *       const cmapSizeP,
         bool                 const verbose) {
 
-    xel * colormap;  /* malloc'ed */
+    xel * colormap = NULL;  /* malloc'ed */
     unsigned int pos;
         /* Current byte position in the BMP file */