diff --git a/WHATS_NEW_DM b/WHATS_NEW_DM
index 59f544d61..eb14d38fc 100644
--- a/WHATS_NEW_DM
+++ b/WHATS_NEW_DM
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 Version 1.02.64 - 
 ===================================
+  Use word alignment for dm_pool_strdup() and dm_pool_strndup().
   Use dm_snprintf() to fix signess warning in dm_set_dev_dir().
   Use unsigned loop counter to fix signess warning in _other_node_ops().
   Fix const cast in dmsetup calls of dm_report_field_string().
diff --git a/libdm/mm/pool-debug.c b/libdm/mm/pool-debug.c
index 7cf2bac89..af1a912fc 100644
--- a/libdm/mm/pool-debug.c
+++ b/libdm/mm/pool-debug.c
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ static struct block *_new_block(size_t s, unsigned alignment)
 	 * I don't think LVM will use anything but default
 	 * align.
 	 */
-	assert(alignment == DEFAULT_ALIGNMENT);
+	assert(alignment <= DEFAULT_ALIGNMENT);
 
 	if (!b) {
 		log_error("Out of memory");
diff --git a/libdm/mm/pool.c b/libdm/mm/pool.c
index 825f7cad8..608826b47 100644
--- a/libdm/mm/pool.c
+++ b/libdm/mm/pool.c
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ void dm_pools_check_leaks(void);
 
 char *dm_pool_strdup(struct dm_pool *p, const char *str)
 {
-	char *ret = dm_pool_alloc(p, strlen(str) + 1);
+	char *ret = dm_pool_alloc_aligned(p, strlen(str) + 1, 2);
 
 	if (ret)
 		strcpy(ret, str);
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ char *dm_pool_strdup(struct dm_pool *p, const char *str)
 
 char *dm_pool_strndup(struct dm_pool *p, const char *str, size_t n)
 {
-	char *ret = dm_pool_alloc(p, n + 1);
+	char *ret = dm_pool_alloc_aligned(p, n + 1, 2);
 
 	if (ret) {
 		strncpy(ret, str, n);