diff --git a/crypto/secio/protocol.go b/crypto/secio/protocol.go
index 73cb5fdf0..b51197202 100644
--- a/crypto/secio/protocol.go
+++ b/crypto/secio/protocol.go
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ func (s *secureSession) runHandshake() error {
 	s.local.ephemeralPubKey, genSharedKey, err = ci.GenerateEKeyPair(s.local.curveT)
 
 	// Gather corpus to sign.
-	var selectionOut bytes.Buffer
+	selectionOut := new(bytes.Buffer)
 	selectionOut.Write(proposeOutBytes)
 	selectionOut.Write(proposeInBytes)
 	selectionOut.Write(s.local.ephemeralPubKey)
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ func (s *secureSession) runHandshake() error {
 	// get their ephemeral pub key
 	s.remote.ephemeralPubKey = exchangeIn.GetEpubkey()
 
-	var selectionIn bytes.Buffer
+	selectionIn := new(bytes.Buffer)
 	selectionIn.Write(proposeInBytes)
 	selectionIn.Write(proposeOutBytes)
 	selectionIn.Write(s.remote.ephemeralPubKey)
diff --git a/protocol/mux_test.go b/protocol/mux_test.go
index 68cdb1175..9e3b24552 100644
--- a/protocol/mux_test.go
+++ b/protocol/mux_test.go
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ var testCases = map[string]string{
 
 func TestWrite(t *testing.T) {
 	for k, v := range testCases {
-		var buf bytes.Buffer
-		if err := WriteHeader(&buf, ID(k)); err != nil {
+		buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
+		if err := WriteHeader(buf, ID(k)); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 
@@ -46,13 +46,13 @@ func TestHandler(t *testing.T) {
 	m.SetHandler("/ipfs/dksnafkasnfkdajfkdajfdsjadosiaaodj", h("bitswap"))
 
 	for k, v := range testCases {
-		var buf bytes.Buffer
+		buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
 		if _, err := buf.Write([]byte(v)); err != nil {
 			t.Error(err)
 			continue
 		}
 
-		name, err := ReadHeader(&buf)
+		name, err := ReadHeader(buf)
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Error(err)
 			continue