diff --git a/src/common/spawn.cpp b/src/common/spawn.cpp
index e03552f8c..9a7e75d41 100644
--- a/src/common/spawn.cpp
+++ b/src/common/spawn.cpp
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ int spawn(const char *filename, const std::vector<std::string>& args, bool wait)
   MINFO("Child exited with " << exitCode);
   return static_cast<int>(exitCode);
 #else
-  char **argv = (char**)alloca(sizeof(char*) * (args.size() + 1));
+  std::vector<char*> argv(args.size() + 1);
   for (size_t n = 0; n < args.size(); ++n)
     argv[n] = (char*)args[n].c_str();
   argv[args.size()] = NULL;
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ int spawn(const char *filename, const std::vector<std::string>& args, bool wait)
     tools::closefrom(3);
     close(0);
     char *envp[] = {NULL};
-    execve(filename, argv, envp);
+    execve(filename, argv.data(), envp);
     MERROR("Failed to execve: " << strerror(errno));
     return -1;
   }
diff --git a/src/crypto/tree-hash.c b/src/crypto/tree-hash.c
index b2dc3ffb2..2d9245233 100644
--- a/src/crypto/tree-hash.c
+++ b/src/crypto/tree-hash.c
@@ -34,15 +34,6 @@
 
 #include "hash-ops.h"
 
-#ifdef _MSC_VER
-#include <malloc.h>
-#elif !defined(__FreeBSD__) && !defined(__OpenBSD__) && !defined(__DragonFly__) \
-  && !defined(__NetBSD__)
- #include <alloca.h>
-#else
- #include <stdlib.h>
-#endif
-
 /*** 
 * Round to power of two, for count>=3 and for count being not too large (as reasonable for tree hash calculations)
 */
@@ -91,9 +82,8 @@ void tree_hash(const char (*hashes)[HASH_SIZE], size_t count, char *root_hash) {
 
     size_t cnt = tree_hash_cnt( count );
 
-    char (*ints)[HASH_SIZE];
-    size_t ints_size = cnt * HASH_SIZE;
-    ints = alloca(ints_size); 	memset( ints , 0 , ints_size);  // allocate, and zero out as extra protection for using uninitialized mem
+    char ints[cnt][HASH_SIZE];
+    memset(ints, 0 , sizeof(ints));  // zero out as extra protection for using uninitialized mem
 
     memcpy(ints, hashes, (2 * cnt - count) * HASH_SIZE);