diff --git a/libclamav/htmlnorm.c b/libclamav/htmlnorm.c
index 470862bf0..084d048fd 100644
--- a/libclamav/htmlnorm.c
+++ b/libclamav/htmlnorm.c
@@ -649,7 +649,7 @@ static int cli_html_normalise(int fd, m_area_t *m_area, const char *dirname, tag
 	html_state state=HTML_NORM, next_state=HTML_BAD_STATE, saved_next_state=HTML_BAD_STATE;
 	char filename[1024], tag[HTML_STR_LENGTH+1], tag_arg[HTML_STR_LENGTH+1];
 	char tag_val[HTML_STR_LENGTH+1], *tmp_file, *arg_value;
-	unsigned char *line, *ptr, *ptr_screnc = NULL;
+	unsigned char *line = NULL, *ptr, *ptr_screnc = NULL;
 	tag_arguments_t tag_args;
 	quoted_state quoted = NOT_QUOTED;
 	unsigned long length = 0;