diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e4bee24..09dfe2e 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 vNEXT:
 	Fix proxyprotocol target field (Thanks to Github user 404-Not-Found)
 
+	Fix memory leak in regex probe.
+
 v2.2.4:
 	Fix CVE-2025-46806 for "Misaligned Memory Accesses in `is_openvpn_protocol()`"
 
diff --git a/probe.c b/probe.c
index 37f9bb6..c6a05d5 100644
--- a/probe.c
+++ b/probe.c
@@ -21,10 +21,6 @@
 
 #define _GNU_SOURCE
 #include <stdio.h>
-#ifdef ENABLE_REGEX
-#define PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH 8
-#include <pcre2.h>
-#endif
 #include <regex.h>
 #include <ctype.h>
 #include "probe.h"
@@ -429,16 +425,18 @@ static int is_msrdp_protocol(const char *p, ssize_t len, struct sslhcfg_protocol
     return packet_len == len;
 }
 
+#ifdef ENABLE_REGEX
+pcre2_match_data* probe_regex_matches;
+#endif
+
 static int regex_probe(const char *p, ssize_t len, struct sslhcfg_protocols_item* proto)
 {
 #ifdef ENABLE_REGEX
     pcre2_code**probe = (pcre2_code**)proto->data;
-    pcre2_match_data* matches;
 
-    matches = pcre2_match_data_create(1, NULL);
 
     for (; *probe; probe++) {
-        int res = pcre2_match(*probe, (PCRE2_SPTR8)p, len, 0, 0, matches, NULL);
+        int res = pcre2_match(*probe, (PCRE2_SPTR8)p, len, 0, 0, probe_regex_matches, NULL);
         if (res >= 0) return 1;
 
     }
diff --git a/probe.h b/probe.h
index d0b768b..925ca5c 100644
--- a/probe.h
+++ b/probe.h
@@ -66,4 +66,11 @@ struct sslhcfg_protocols_item* timeout_protocol(void);
 
 void hexdump(msg_info, const char*, unsigned int);
 
+#ifdef ENABLE_REGEX
+#define PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH 8
+#include <pcre2.h>
+extern pcre2_match_data* probe_regex_matches;
+#endif
+
+
 #endif
diff --git a/sslh-main.c b/sslh-main.c
index ba3de13..99aa0f4 100644
--- a/sslh-main.c
+++ b/sslh-main.c
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ static void setup_regex_probe(struct sslhcfg_protocols_item *p)
             exit(1);
         }
     }
+    probe_regex_matches = pcre2_match_data_create(1, NULL);
 }
 #else
 {