diff --git a/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c b/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
index b121ea10e..952531d30 100644
--- a/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
+++ b/kpasswd/kpasswd-generator.c
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ read_words (const char *filename, char ***ret_w)
     *ret_w = w;
     if (n == 0)
 	errx(1, "%s is an empty file, no words to try", filename);
+    fclose(f);
     return n;
 }