diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c b/net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c
index dd945b1142152a37b8c725d36e830827038fedd2..5d203248123e1dedc6410dcb5856fd78bab96eb8 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c
@@ -1911,7 +1911,7 @@ void tcp_v4_destroy_sock(struct sock *sk)
 	/* Clean up the MD5 key list, if any */
 	if (tp->md5sig_info) {
 		tcp_clear_md5_list(sk);
-		kfree_rcu(tp->md5sig_info, rcu);
+		kfree_rcu(rcu_dereference_protected(tp->md5sig_info, 1), rcu);
 		tp->md5sig_info = NULL;
 	}
 #endif