diff --git a/src/ex_cmds.c b/src/ex_cmds.c
index a08682b..e311fa8 100644
--- a/src/ex_cmds.c
+++ b/src/ex_cmds.c
@@ -4650,7 +4650,7 @@
 		     * too many calls to alloc()/free()).
 		     */
 		    new_start_len = needed_len + 50;
-		    if ((new_start = alloc(new_start_len)) == NULL)
+		    if ((new_start = alloc_clear(new_start_len)) == NULL)
 			goto outofmem;
 		    *new_start = NUL;
 		    new_end = new_start;
@@ -4667,7 +4667,7 @@
 		    if (needed_len > (int)new_start_len)
 		    {
 			new_start_len = needed_len + 50;
-			if ((p1 = alloc(new_start_len)) == NULL)
+			if ((p1 = alloc_clear(new_start_len)) == NULL)
 			{
 			    vim_free(new_start);
 			    goto outofmem;
diff --git a/src/testdir/crash/poc_ex_substitute b/src/testdir/crash/poc_ex_substitute
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bcf1286
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/testdir/crash/poc_ex_substitute
Binary files differ
diff --git a/src/testdir/test_crash.vim b/src/testdir/test_crash.vim
index 1d4f435..49e712a 100644
--- a/src/testdir/test_crash.vim
+++ b/src/testdir/test_crash.vim
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@
   " The following used to crash Vim
   let opts = #{cmd: 'sh'}
   let vim  = GetVimProg()
-  let result = 'X_crash1_1_result.txt'
+  let result = 'X_crash1_2_result.txt'
 
   let buf = RunVimInTerminal('sh', opts)
 
@@ -149,6 +149,17 @@
     \ ' ; echo "crash 4: [OK]" >> '.. result .. "\<cr>")
   call TermWait(buf, 150)
 
+  let file = 'crash/poc_ex_substitute'
+  let cmn_args = "%s -u NONE -i NONE -n -e -s -S %s -c ':qa!'"
+  let args = printf(cmn_args, vim, file)
+  " just make sure it runs, we don't care about the resulting echo
+  call term_sendkeys(buf, args .. "\<cr>")
+  " There is no output generated in Github CI for the asan clang build.
+  " so just skip generating the ouput.
+  " call term_sendkeys(buf, args ..
+  "   \ ' &&  echo "crash 5: [OK]" >> '.. result .. "\<cr>")
+  call TermWait(buf, 150)
+
   " clean up
   exe buf .. "bw!"
 
diff --git a/src/version.c b/src/version.c
index 28325a7..efa9dcd 100644
--- a/src/version.c
+++ b/src/version.c
@@ -705,6 +705,8 @@
 static int included_patches[] =
 {   /* Add new patch number below this line */
 /**/
+    2143,
+/**/
     2142,
 /**/
     2141,