diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 27aa0a3192..9e33584f2d 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -1073,6 +1073,7 @@ void http_init(struct remote *remote, const char *url, int proactive_auth)
 
 	git_config(urlmatch_config_entry, &config);
 	free(normalized_url);
+	string_list_clear(&config.vars, 1);
 
 #if LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM >= 0x073800
 	if (http_ssl_backend) {