diff --git a/src/libostree/ostree-repo-static-delta-core.c b/src/libostree/ostree-repo-static-delta-core.c
index 9e3ed09f..01383712 100644
--- a/src/libostree/ostree-repo-static-delta-core.c
+++ b/src/libostree/ostree-repo-static-delta-core.c
@@ -512,6 +512,7 @@ _ostree_static_delta_part_open (GInputStream   *part_in,
                                                                     g_bytes_get_size (inline_part_bytes) - 1);
           ret_part = g_variant_new_from_bytes (G_VARIANT_TYPE (OSTREE_STATIC_DELTA_PART_PAYLOAD_FORMAT_V0),
                                                content_bytes, trusted);
+          g_variant_ref_sink (ret_part);
         }
 
       if (!skip_checksum)
diff --git a/src/libotutil/ot-variant-utils.c b/src/libotutil/ot-variant-utils.c
index 7b54542e..b9fe94b9 100644
--- a/src/libotutil/ot-variant-utils.c
+++ b/src/libotutil/ot-variant-utils.c
@@ -166,7 +166,6 @@ ot_util_variant_map_at (int dfd,
                         GError  **error)
 {
   glnx_fd_close int fd = -1;
-  g_autoptr(GVariant) ret_variant = NULL;
 
   fd = openat (dfd, path, O_RDONLY | O_CLOEXEC);
   if (fd < 0)
@@ -224,8 +223,8 @@ ot_util_variant_map_fd (int                    fd,
   mdata->len = len;
 
   ret = TRUE;
-  *out_variant = g_variant_new_from_data (type, map, len, trusted,
-                                          variant_map_data_destroy, mdata);
+  *out_variant = g_variant_ref_sink (g_variant_new_from_data (type, map, len, trusted,
+                                                              variant_map_data_destroy, mdata));
  out:
   return ret;
 }