diff --git a/servers/slapd/back-ldbm/index.c b/servers/slapd/back-ldbm/index.c
index d6b5faa306..be528ed364 100644
--- a/servers/slapd/back-ldbm/index.c
+++ b/servers/slapd/back-ldbm/index.c
@@ -38,7 +38,11 @@ index_add_entry(
 	bvals[1] = NULL;
 
 	/* add the dn to the indexes */
-	index_add_values( be, "dn", bvals, e->e_id );
+	{
+		char *dn = ch_strdup("dn");
+		index_add_values( be, dn, bvals, e->e_id );
+		free( dn );
+	}
 
 	free( bv.bv_val );