diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index c6dc9b778..eaf7f40d1 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -211,12 +211,12 @@ static int http_options(const char *var, const char *value, void *cb)
 static void init_curl_http_auth(CURL *result)
 {
 	if (http_auth.username) {
-		struct strbuf up = STRBUF_INIT;
+		static struct strbuf up = STRBUF_INIT;
 		credential_fill(&http_auth);
+		strbuf_reset(&up);
 		strbuf_addf(&up, "%s:%s",
 			    http_auth.username, http_auth.password);
-		curl_easy_setopt(result, CURLOPT_USERPWD,
-				 strbuf_detach(&up, NULL));
+		curl_easy_setopt(result, CURLOPT_USERPWD, up.buf);
 	}
 }