diff --git a/changes/bug24279 b/changes/bug24279
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ab2932b34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/bug24279
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+  o Minor bugfixes (compilation, hardening):
+    - Fix a memory leak warning in one of the libevent-related
+      configuration tests that could occur when manually specifying
+      -fsanitize=address.  Fixes bug 24279; bugfix on 0.3.0.2-alpha.
+      Found and patched by Alex Xu.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index c92118f73..dd7dcbc87 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -624,7 +624,7 @@ struct event_base *event_base_new(void);],
 #ifdef _WIN32
 {WSADATA d; WSAStartup(0x101,&d); }
 #endif
-event_base_new();
+event_base_free(event_base_new());
 ], [--with-libevent-dir], [/opt/libevent])
 
 dnl Determine the incantation needed to link libevent.