diff --git a/src/system/libroot/posix/stdlib/realpath.cpp b/src/system/libroot/posix/stdlib/realpath.cpp
index 575198ec80..9724c39d7e 100644
--- a/src/system/libroot/posix/stdlib/realpath.cpp
+++ b/src/system/libroot/posix/stdlib/realpath.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 /*
+ * Copyright 2013, Olivier Coursière, olivier.coursiere@laposte.net.
  * Copyright 2009, Axel Dörfler, axeld@pinc-software.de.
  * Distributed under the terms of the MIT License.
  */
@@ -16,16 +17,31 @@
 char*
 realpath(const char* path, char* resolved)
 {
-	status_t status = _kern_normalize_path(path, true, resolved);
+	char* resolvedPath = resolved;
+
+	if (resolvedPath == NULL) {
+		resolvedPath = (char*)malloc(PATH_MAX + 1);
+		if (resolvedPath == NULL) {
+			__set_errno(B_NO_MEMORY);
+			return NULL;
+		}
+	}
+
+	status_t status = _kern_normalize_path(path, true, resolvedPath);
 	if (status != B_OK) {
 		__set_errno(status);
+		if (resolved == NULL)
+			free(resolvedPath);
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
 	// The path must actually exist, not just its parent directories
 	struct stat stat;
-	if (lstat(resolved, &stat) != 0)
+	if (lstat(resolvedPath, &stat) != 0) {
+		if (resolved == NULL)
+			free(resolvedPath);
 		return NULL;
+	}
 
-	return resolved;
+	return resolvedPath;
 }