diff --git a/plugins/sudoers/match.c b/plugins/sudoers/match.c
index 7faae7399..7c8e9d8e6 100644
--- a/plugins/sudoers/match.c
+++ b/plugins/sudoers/match.c
@@ -295,6 +295,7 @@ runaslist_matches(struct sudoers_parse_tree *parse_tree,
 			break;
 		    }
 		}
+		sudo_gidlist_delref(runas_groups);
 	    }
 	}
     }