diff --git a/src/util-mem.h b/src/util-mem.h
index 379c8b220e..ea2ef88931 100644
--- a/src/util-mem.h
+++ b/src/util-mem.h
@@ -207,10 +207,39 @@ SC_ATOMIC_EXTERN(unsigned int, engine_stage);
     (void*)ptrmem; \
 })
 
+/** \brief wrapper for allocing aligned mem
+ *  \param a size
+ *  \param b alignement
+ */
+#define SCMallocAligned(a, b) ({ \
+    void *ptrmem = NULL; \
+    \
+    if (posix_memalign(&ptrmem, (b), (a)) != 0) { \
+        if (SC_ATOMIC_GET(engine_stage) == SURICATA_INIT) {\
+            SCLogError(SC_ERR_MEM_ALLOC, "SCMallocAligned(posix_memalign) failed: %s, while trying " \
+                "to allocate %"PRIuMAX" bytes, alignment %"PRIuMAX, strerror(errno), (uintmax_t)a, (uintmax_t)b); \
+            SCLogError(SC_ERR_FATAL, "Out of memory. The engine cannot be initialized. Exiting..."); \
+            exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \
+        } \
+    } \
+    (void*)ptrmem; \
+})
+
 #define SCFree(a) ({ \
     free(a); \
 })
 
+/** \brief Free aligned memory
+ *
+ * Not needed for mem alloc'd by posix_memalign,
+ * but for possible future use of _mm_malloc needing
+ * _mm_free.
+ */
+#define SCFreeAligned(a) ({ \
+    free(a); \
+})
+
+
 #endif /* DBG_MEM_ALLOC */
 
 #endif /* __UTIL_MEM_H__ */