diff --git a/tests/malloc_thread_safety/Makefile b/tests/malloc_thread_safety/Makefile
index 21e686cefe..7a6fa50d84 100644
--- a/tests/malloc_thread_safety/Makefile
+++ b/tests/malloc_thread_safety/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 include ../Makefile.tests_common
 
+PICOLIBC ?= 0
+ifneq (0,$(PICOLIBC))
+  FEATURES_REQUIRED += picolibc
+endif
 USEMODULE += xtimer
 
 include $(RIOTBASE)/Makefile.include
diff --git a/tests/malloc_thread_safety/main.c b/tests/malloc_thread_safety/main.c
index 8c88e5086a..1570fb1f33 100644
--- a/tests/malloc_thread_safety/main.c
+++ b/tests/malloc_thread_safety/main.c
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ static char WORD_ALIGNED t1_stack[THREAD_STACKSIZE_SMALL];
 static char WORD_ALIGNED t2_stack[THREAD_STACKSIZE_SMALL];
 static atomic_uint_least8_t is_running = ATOMIC_VAR_INIT(1);
 
-void * t1_t2_func(void *arg)
+void * t1_t2_malloc_func(void *arg)
 {
     (void)arg;
     while (atomic_load(&is_running)) {
@@ -57,6 +57,30 @@ void * t1_t2_func(void *arg)
     return NULL;
 }
 
+void * t1_t2_realloc_func(void *arg)
+{
+    (void)arg;
+    while (atomic_load(&is_running)) {
+        int *chunk = realloc(NULL, sizeof(int) * 1);
+        expect(chunk);
+        /* cppcheck-suppress memleakOnRealloc
+         * no need to free data on allocation failure, as expect() terminates then anyway */
+        chunk = realloc(chunk, sizeof(int) * 2);
+        expect(chunk);
+        /* cppcheck-suppress memleakOnRealloc
+         * no need to free data on allocation failure, as expect() terminates then anyway */
+        chunk = realloc(chunk, sizeof(int) * 4);
+        expect(chunk);
+        /* cppcheck-suppress memleakOnRealloc
+         * no need to free data on allocation failure, as expect() terminates then anyway */
+        chunk = realloc(chunk, sizeof(int) * 8);
+        expect(chunk);
+        free(chunk);
+    }
+
+    return NULL;
+}
+
 static void evil_schedule_hack_dont_do_this_at_home(uint8_t prio)
 {
     extern clist_node_t sched_runqueues[SCHED_PRIO_LEVELS];
@@ -66,6 +90,7 @@ static void evil_schedule_hack_dont_do_this_at_home(uint8_t prio)
 int main(void)
 {
     kernel_pid_t t1, t2;
+    int failed = 0;
     puts(
         "Test Application for multithreaded use of malloc()\n"
         "==================================================\n"
@@ -78,41 +103,67 @@ int main(void)
     );
 
 #ifndef NO_MALLINFO
+    /* in case the malloc implementation dynamically allocates management structures,
+     * do one malloc() / free() to obtain the baseline for mallinfo()
+     */
+    free(malloc(sizeof(int)));
     struct mallinfo pre = mallinfo();
 #else
     puts("WARNING: Use of mallinfo() disabled.\n");
 #endif
 
-    t1 = thread_create(t1_stack, sizeof(t1_stack), THREAD_PRIORITY_MAIN + 1,
-                       THREAD_CREATE_STACKTEST, t1_t2_func, NULL, "t1");
-    t2 = thread_create(t2_stack, sizeof(t2_stack), THREAD_PRIORITY_MAIN + 1,
-                       THREAD_CREATE_STACKTEST, t1_t2_func, NULL, "t2");
-    expect((t1 != KERNEL_PID_UNDEF) && (t2 != KERNEL_PID_UNDEF));
+    void *(* const funcs[])(void *) = { t1_t2_malloc_func, t1_t2_realloc_func };
+    const char *tests[] = { "malloc()/free()", "realloc()/free()" };
 
-    for (uint16_t i = 0; i < 2 * MS_PER_SEC; i++) {
-        xtimer_usleep(US_PER_MS);
-        /* shuffle t1 and t2 in their run queue. This should eventually hit
-         * during a call to malloc() or free() and disclose any missing
-         * guards */
-        evil_schedule_hack_dont_do_this_at_home(THREAD_PRIORITY_MAIN + 1);
-    }
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(funcs); i++) {
+        printf("Testing: %s\n", tests[i]);
+        t1 = thread_create(t1_stack, sizeof(t1_stack), THREAD_PRIORITY_MAIN + 1,
+                           THREAD_CREATE_STACKTEST, funcs[i], NULL, "t1");
+        t2 = thread_create(t2_stack, sizeof(t2_stack), THREAD_PRIORITY_MAIN + 1,
+                           THREAD_CREATE_STACKTEST, funcs[i], NULL, "t2");
+        expect((t1 != KERNEL_PID_UNDEF) && (t2 != KERNEL_PID_UNDEF));
 
-    /* Don't keep threads spinning */
-    atomic_store(&is_running, 0);
-    /* Give threads time to terminate */
-    xtimer_usleep(10 * US_PER_MS);
+        for (uint16_t i = 0; i < 2 * MS_PER_SEC; i++) {
+            xtimer_usleep(US_PER_MS);
+            /* shuffle t1 and t2 in their run queue. This should eventually hit
+             * during a call to malloc() or free() and disclose any missing
+             * guards */
+            evil_schedule_hack_dont_do_this_at_home(THREAD_PRIORITY_MAIN + 1);
+        }
+
+        /* Don't keep threads spinning */
+        atomic_store(&is_running, 0);
+        /* Give threads time to terminate */
+        xtimer_usleep(10 * US_PER_MS);
 
 #ifndef NO_MALLINFO
-    struct mallinfo post = mallinfo();
+        struct mallinfo post = mallinfo();
 
-    /* RIOT's board or arch support hopefully doesn't use malloc, so there
-     * should be zero bytes allocated prior to the first call to malloc() in
-     * this test. But let's be forgiving and just expect that the number of
-     * allocated bytes before and after the test is equal.
-     */
-    expect(pre.uordblks == post.uordblks);
+        /* RIOT's board or arch support hopefully doesn't use malloc, so there
+         * should be zero bytes allocated prior to the first call to malloc() in
+         * this test. But let's be forgiving and just expect that the number of
+         * allocated bytes before and after the test is equal.
+         */
+        if (pre.uordblks != post.uordblks) {
+            failed = 1;
+            puts("Not all blocks were correctly freed!");
+            printf("mallinfo().uordblks before test: %u, after test: %u\n",
+                   (unsigned)pre.uordblks, (unsigned)post.uordblks);
+        }
 #endif
-    puts("TEST PASSED");
+    }
+
+    /* cppcheck-suppress knownConditionTrueFalse
+     * The actual test is that this application doesn't crash / hang due to memory corruptions.
+     * But if there is mallinfo() provided, we can also test for memory leaks in the malloc()
+     * implementation pretty much for free. Even if this implementation most likely comes from
+     * the standard C lib, it is still good to be at least aware of bugs in the used toolchain */
+    if (failed) {
+        puts("TEST FAILED");
+    }
+    else {
+        puts("TEST PASSED");
+    }
 
     return 0;
 }