diff --git a/src/sage/libs/eclib/__init__.pxd b/src/sage/libs/eclib/__init__.pxd
index d44d4fba865..84d1fc92275 100644
--- a/src/sage/libs/eclib/__init__.pxd
+++ b/src/sage/libs/eclib/__init__.pxd
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ cdef extern from "eclib/matrix.h":
     cdef cppclass mat:
         mat()
         mat(mat m)
-        scalar* get_entries()
+        vector[scalar] get_entries()
         scalar sub(long, long)
         long nrows()
         long ncols()
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ cdef extern from "eclib/smatrix.h":
     cdef cppclass smat:
         smat()
         smat(smat m)
-        scalar* get_entries()
+        vector[scalar] get_entries()
         scalar sub(long, long)
         long nrows()
         long ncols()
diff --git a/src/sage/libs/eclib/mat.pyx b/src/sage/libs/eclib/mat.pyx
index bfdeb6ae5c1..e7abe369b2b 100644
--- a/src/sage/libs/eclib/mat.pyx
+++ b/src/sage/libs/eclib/mat.pyx
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ from sage.rings.integer_ring import ZZ
 from sage.matrix.matrix_integer_sparse cimport Matrix_integer_sparse
 from sage.matrix.matrix_integer_dense cimport Matrix_integer_dense
 from sage.rings.integer cimport Integer
-
+from libcpp.vector cimport vector
 
 cdef class Matrix:
     """
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ cdef class Matrix:
         """
         cdef long n = self.nrows()
         cdef long i, j, k
-        cdef scalar* v = <scalar*> self.M.get_entries()   # coercion needed to deal with const
+        cdef vector[scalar] v = <vector[scalar]> self.M.get_entries()   # coercion needed to deal with const
 
         cdef Matrix_integer_dense Td
         cdef Matrix_integer_sparse Ts