diff --git a/rtc_base/string_encode.cc b/rtc_base/string_encode.cc
index 7b2eda7051..da31ac08b3 100644
--- a/rtc_base/string_encode.cc
+++ b/rtc_base/string_encode.cc
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 
 #include "rtc_base/arraysize.h"
 #include "rtc_base/checks.h"
-#include "rtc_base/string_utils.h"
 
 namespace rtc {
 
@@ -45,25 +44,22 @@ bool hex_decode(char ch, unsigned char* val) {
   return true;
 }
 
-// hex_encode, but separate each byte representation with a delimiter.
-// |delimiter| == 0 means no delimiter
-// If the buffer is too short, we return 0
-size_t hex_encode_with_delimiter(char* buffer,
-                                 size_t buflen,
-                                 const char* csource,
-                                 size_t srclen,
-                                 char delimiter) {
-  RTC_DCHECK(buffer);  // TODO(kwiberg): estimate output size
-  if (buflen == 0)
-    return 0;
+size_t hex_encode_output_length(size_t srclen, char delimiter) {
+  return delimiter && srclen > 0 ? (srclen * 3 - 1) : (srclen * 2);
+}
+
+// hex_encode shows the hex representation of binary data in ascii, with
+// |delimiter| between bytes, or none if |delimiter| == 0.
+void hex_encode_with_delimiter(char* buffer,
+                               const char* csource,
+                               size_t srclen,
+                               char delimiter) {
+  RTC_DCHECK(buffer);
 
   // Init and check bounds.
   const unsigned char* bsource =
       reinterpret_cast<const unsigned char*>(csource);
   size_t srcpos = 0, bufpos = 0;
-  size_t needed = delimiter ? (srclen * 3) : (srclen * 2 + 1);
-  if (buflen < needed)
-    return 0;
 
   while (srcpos < srclen) {
     unsigned char ch = bsource[srcpos++];
@@ -77,10 +73,6 @@ size_t hex_encode_with_delimiter(char* buffer,
       ++bufpos;
     }
   }
-
-  // Null terminate.
-  buffer[bufpos] = '\0';
-  return bufpos;
 }
 
 }  // namespace
@@ -96,12 +88,11 @@ std::string hex_encode(const char* source, size_t srclen) {
 std::string hex_encode_with_delimiter(const char* source,
                                       size_t srclen,
                                       char delimiter) {
-  const size_t kBufferSize = srclen * 3;
-  char* buffer = STACK_ARRAY(char, kBufferSize);
-  size_t length =
-      hex_encode_with_delimiter(buffer, kBufferSize, source, srclen, delimiter);
-  RTC_DCHECK(srclen == 0 || length > 0);
-  return std::string(buffer, length);
+  std::string s(hex_encode_output_length(srclen, delimiter), 0);
+  // TODO(nisse): When we can use C++17, switch the below hack with begin to
+  // just s.data().
+  hex_encode_with_delimiter(&*s.begin(), source, srclen, delimiter);
+  return s;
 }
 
 size_t hex_decode(char* cbuffer,
diff --git a/rtc_base/string_utils.h b/rtc_base/string_utils.h
index bc332846a4..5b5d33c148 100644
--- a/rtc_base/string_utils.h
+++ b/rtc_base/string_utils.h
@@ -21,31 +21,15 @@
 #include <wchar.h>
 #include <windows.h>
 
-#define alloca _alloca
 #endif  // WEBRTC_WIN
 
 #if defined(WEBRTC_POSIX)
-#ifdef BSD
 #include <stdlib.h>
-#else  // BSD
-#include <alloca.h>
-#endif  // !BSD
 #include <strings.h>
 #endif  // WEBRTC_POSIX
 
 #include <string>
 
-///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-// Generic string/memory utilities
-///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-
-#define STACK_ARRAY(TYPE, LEN) \
-  static_cast<TYPE*>(::alloca((LEN) * sizeof(TYPE)))
-
-///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-// Traits simplifies porting string functions to be CTYPE-agnostic
-///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
-
 namespace rtc {
 
 const size_t SIZE_UNKNOWN = static_cast<size_t>(-1);
@@ -65,9 +49,10 @@ size_t strcpyn(char* buffer,
 inline std::wstring ToUtf16(const char* utf8, size_t len) {
   int len16 = ::MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, utf8, static_cast<int>(len),
                                     nullptr, 0);
-  wchar_t* ws = STACK_ARRAY(wchar_t, len16);
-  ::MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, utf8, static_cast<int>(len), ws, len16);
-  return std::wstring(ws, len16);
+  std::wstring ws(len16, 0);
+  ::MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, utf8, static_cast<int>(len), &*ws.begin(),
+                        ws.size());
+  return ws;
 }
 
 inline std::wstring ToUtf16(const std::string& str) {
@@ -77,10 +62,10 @@ inline std::wstring ToUtf16(const std::string& str) {
 inline std::string ToUtf8(const wchar_t* wide, size_t len) {
   int len8 = ::WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, wide, static_cast<int>(len),
                                    nullptr, 0, nullptr, nullptr);
-  char* ns = STACK_ARRAY(char, len8);
-  ::WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, wide, static_cast<int>(len), ns, len8,
-                        nullptr, nullptr);
-  return std::string(ns, len8);
+  std::string ns(len8, 0);
+  ::WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, wide, static_cast<int>(len), &*ns.begin(),
+                        ns.size(), nullptr, nullptr);
+  return ns;
 }
 
 inline std::string ToUtf8(const wchar_t* wide) {