diff --git a/src/core/settings/nm-settings.c b/src/core/settings/nm-settings.c
index 702c53d5e2..3fe9c76a2e 100644
--- a/src/core/settings/nm-settings.c
+++ b/src/core/settings/nm-settings.c
@@ -2934,6 +2934,8 @@ impl_settings_add_connection2(NMDBusObject                      *obj,
 
     g_variant_iter_init(&iter, args);
     while (g_variant_iter_next(&iter, "{&sv}", &args_name, &args_value)) {
+        gs_unref_variant GVariant *args_value_unref = args_value;
+
         if (plugin == NULL && nm_streq(args_name, "plugin")
             && g_variant_is_of_type(args_value, G_VARIANT_TYPE_STRING)) {
             plugin = g_variant_dup_string(args_value, NULL);