diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index a7fd8e87829c..07a7eab04a6c 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -91,8 +91,10 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #17968: Fix memory leak in os.listxattr().
+
 - Issue #17606: Fixed support of encoded byte strings in the XMLGenerator
- .characters() and ignorableWhitespace() methods.  Original patch by Sebastian
+  characters() and ignorableWhitespace() methods.  Original patch by Sebastian
   Ortiz Vasquez.
 
 - Issue #17732: Ignore distutils.cfg options pertaining to install paths if a
diff --git a/Modules/posixmodule.c b/Modules/posixmodule.c
index 1149856e3055..8e84392d5ca8 100644
--- a/Modules/posixmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/posixmodule.c
@@ -10119,8 +10119,10 @@ posix_listxattr(PyObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
         Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS;
 
         if (length < 0) {
-            if (errno == ERANGE)
+            if (errno == ERANGE) {
+                PyMem_FREE(buffer);
                 continue;
+            }
             path_error(&path);
             break;
         }