diff --git a/util/cbfstool/cbfstool.c b/util/cbfstool/cbfstool.c
index 04b91e51ce..d26c418612 100644
--- a/util/cbfstool/cbfstool.c
+++ b/util/cbfstool/cbfstool.c
@@ -770,8 +770,8 @@ static int cbfs_add_master_header(void)
 	 */
 	if (param.topswap_size) {
 		if (update_master_header_loc_topswap(&image, h_loc,
-							header_offset))
-			return 1;
+						     header_offset))
+			goto done;
 	}
 
 	ret = maybe_update_metadata_hash(&image);
diff --git a/util/cbfstool/common.c b/util/cbfstool/common.c
index 8ae9120acc..7154bc9d54 100644
--- a/util/cbfstool/common.c
+++ b/util/cbfstool/common.c
@@ -34,8 +34,13 @@ int buffer_create(struct buffer *buffer, size_t size, const char *name)
 	if (!buffer->data) {
 		fprintf(stderr, "buffer_create: Insufficient memory (0x%zx).\n",
 			size);
+		if (buffer->name) {
+			free(buffer->name);
+			buffer->name = NULL;
+		}
+		return -1;
 	}
-	return (buffer->data == NULL);
+	return 0;
 }
 
 int buffer_from_file_aligned_size(struct buffer *buffer, const char *filename,