diff --git a/daemon/bencode.c b/daemon/bencode.c
index 0683c213a..fc5638d69 100644
--- a/daemon/bencode.c
+++ b/daemon/bencode.c
@@ -16,13 +16,11 @@
 
 #define BENCODE_HASH_BUCKETS		31 /* prime numbers work best */
 
-#define BENCODE_ALLOC_ALIGN		8
-
 struct __bencode_buffer_piece {
 	char *tail;
 	unsigned int left;
 	struct __bencode_buffer_piece *next;
-	char buf[0];
+	char buf[0] __attribute__ ((aligned (BENCODE_ALLOC_ALIGN)));
 };
 struct __bencode_free_list {
 	void *ptr;
diff --git a/include/bencode.h b/include/bencode.h
index 30f448412..ca8d85f6c 100644
--- a/include/bencode.h
+++ b/include/bencode.h
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 
 #include "compat.h"
 
+#define BENCODE_ALLOC_ALIGN 8
+
 struct bencode_buffer;
 enum bencode_type;
 struct bencode_item;
@@ -35,7 +37,7 @@ struct bencode_item {
 	long long int value;	/* when decoding an integer, contains the value; otherwise used internally */
 	bencode_item_t *parent, *child, *last_child, *sibling;
 	bencode_buffer_t *buffer;
-	char __buf[0];
+	char __buf[0] __attribute__ ((aligned (BENCODE_ALLOC_ALIGN)));
 };
 
 struct bencode_buffer {