A memory leak occurs when you use the WinINet API in an application to send HTTPS requests to a server

You use the Windows Internet (WinINet) API in an application to send Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer (HTTPS) requests to a server. In this situation, the memory usage of the application continually increases. This behavior indicates that there is a memory leak.

Note This issue only affects HTTPS requests.

This issue occurs because of an error in the WinINet API. When the application establishes a connection by sending HTTPS requests to the server, WinINet allocates 85 bytes to each request. However, 85 bytes for each request are not freed after the connection is established. Therefore, a memory leak of 85 bytes per request occurs.

Security update information

To resolve this problem, install the most recent cumulative security update for Windows Internet Explorer. To do this, visit the following Microsoft website: For more technical information about the most recent cumulative security update for Windows Internet Explorer, visit the following Microsoft website: Note This update was first included in security update 2416400 (MS10-090).

For more information about the WinINet API, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) website: