diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/random.cc b/winsup/cygwin/random.cc
index 802c33b8a7..ff2c5cc50e 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/random.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/random.cc
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ srandomdev()
 
 	if (getentropy ((void *) state, len)) {
 		struct timeval tv;
-		unsigned long junk;
+		unsigned long junk = 0;
 
 		gettimeofday(&tv, NULL);
 		srandom((getpid() << 16) ^ tv.tv_sec ^ tv.tv_usec ^ dummy(&junk));