diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1807,7 +1807,7 @@
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(strerror rand mmap getpagesize sysconf waitpid wait4)
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(gettimeofday getrusage gethrtime clock_gettime syslog)
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(syscall fcntl ftruncate flockfile)
-AC_CHECK_FUNCS(explicit_bzero getentropy)
+AC_CHECK_FUNCS(explicit_bzero explicit_memset getentropy)
 
 GNUPG_CHECK_MLOCK
 
diff --git a/src/misc.c b/src/misc.c
--- a/src/misc.c
+++ b/src/misc.c
@@ -516,6 +516,8 @@
    */
 #ifdef HAVE_EXPLICIT_BZERO
   explicit_bzero (ptr, len);
+#elif defined(HAVE_EXPLICIT_MEMSET)
+  explicit_memset (ptr, 0, len);
 #else
   memset_ptr (ptr, 0, len);
 #endif
@@ -531,6 +533,12 @@
       explicit_bzero (ptr, len);
       return;
     }
+#elif defined(HAVE_EXPLICIT_MEMSET)
+  if (set == 0)
+    {
+      explicit_memset (ptr, 0, len);
+      return;
+    }
 #endif
 
   memset_ptr (ptr, set, len);