diff --git a/src/crystal/system/panic.cr b/src/crystal/system/panic.cr
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..192b735e4d0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/crystal/system/panic.cr
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+module Crystal::System
+  # Prints a system error message on the standard error then exits with an error
+  # status.
+  #
+  # You should always prefer raising an exception, built with
+  # `RuntimeError.from_os_error` for example, but there are a few cases where we
+  # can't allocate any memory (e.g. stop the world) and still need to fail when
+  # reaching a system error.
+  def self.panic(syscall_name : String, error : Errno | WinError | WasiError) : NoReturn
+    System.print_error("%s failed with ", syscall_name)
+    error.unsafe_message { |slice| System.print_error(slice) }
+    System.print_error(" (%s)\n", error.to_s)
+
+    LibC._exit(1)
+  end
+end
diff --git a/src/crystal/tracing.cr b/src/crystal/tracing.cr
index ad3ae184a54a..a680bfea717f 100644
--- a/src/crystal/tracing.cr
+++ b/src/crystal/tracing.cr
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+require "./system/panic"
+
 module Crystal
   # :nodoc:
   module Tracing
@@ -143,23 +145,21 @@ module Crystal
           # not using LibC::INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE because it doesn't exist (yet)
           return handle.address unless handle == LibC::HANDLE.new(-1.to_u64!)
 
-          error = uninitialized UInt16[256]
-          len = LibC.FormatMessageW(LibC::FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM, nil, WinError.value, 0, error, error.size, nil)
-
-          # not using printf because filename and error are UTF-16 slices:
-          System.print_error "ERROR: failed to open "
-          System.print_error filename
-          System.print_error " for writing: "
-          System.print_error error.to_slice[0...len]
-          System.print_error "\n"
+          syscall_name = "CreateFileW"
+          error = WinError.value
         {% else %}
           fd = LibC.open(filename, LibC::O_CREAT | LibC::O_WRONLY | LibC::O_TRUNC | LibC::O_CLOEXEC, 0o644)
           return fd unless fd < 0
 
-          System.print_error "ERROR: failed to open %s for writing: %s\n", filename, LibC.strerror(Errno.value)
+          syscall_name = "open"
+          error = Errno.value
         {% end %}
 
-        LibC._exit(1)
+        System.print_error "ERROR: failed to open "
+        System.print_error filename
+        System.print_error " for writing\n"
+
+        System.panic(syscall_name, Errno.value)
       end
 
       private def self.parse_sections(slice)
diff --git a/src/errno.cr b/src/errno.cr
index 03ca6085eb8a..2a68371f4a19 100644
--- a/src/errno.cr
+++ b/src/errno.cr
@@ -40,10 +40,16 @@ enum Errno
 
   # Convert an Errno to an error message
   def message : String
-    String.new(LibC.strerror(value))
+    unsafe_message { |slice| String.new(slice) }
   end
 
-  # Returns the value of libc's errno.
+  # :nodoc:
+  def unsafe_message(&)
+    pointer = LibC.strerror(value)
+    yield Bytes.new(pointer, LibC.strlen(pointer))
+  end
+
+  # returns the value of libc's errno.
   def self.value : self
     {% if flag?(:netbsd) || flag?(:openbsd) || flag?(:android) %}
       Errno.new LibC.__errno.value
diff --git a/src/wasi_error.cr b/src/wasi_error.cr
index 9a04ed315463..a026de8c7ee2 100644
--- a/src/wasi_error.cr
+++ b/src/wasi_error.cr
@@ -83,6 +83,11 @@ enum WasiError : UInt16
     end
   end
 
+  # :nodoc:
+  def unsafe_message(&)
+    yield message.to_slice
+  end
+
   # Transforms this `WasiError` value to the equivalent `Errno` value.
   #
   # This is only defined for some values. If no transformation is defined for
diff --git a/src/winerror.cr b/src/winerror.cr
index 8da56d7a905e..ab978769d553 100644
--- a/src/winerror.cr
+++ b/src/winerror.cr
@@ -61,17 +61,21 @@ enum WinError : UInt32
   #
   # On non-win32 platforms the result is always an empty string.
   def message : String
-    formatted_message
+    {% if flag?(:win32) %}
+      unsafe_message { |slice| String.from_utf16(slice).strip }
+    {% else %}
+      ""
+    {% end %}
   end
 
   # :nodoc:
-  def formatted_message : String
+  def unsafe_message(&)
     {% if flag?(:win32) %}
       buffer = uninitialized UInt16[256]
       size = LibC.FormatMessageW(LibC::FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM, nil, value, 0, buffer, buffer.size, nil)
-      String.from_utf16(buffer.to_slice[0, size]).strip
+      yield buffer.to_slice[0, size]
     {% else %}
-      ""
+      yield "".to_slice
     {% end %}
   end