diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/dir.c b/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
index 72e95c9c244de06d66e6bf08426f8f2c3e5b7abc..8ee7b77effcdd61cde5b16a0e23d059772ae12fc 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
@@ -116,8 +116,7 @@ int ovl_cleanup_and_whiteout(struct dentry *workdir, struct inode *dir,
 	goto out;
 }
 
-static int ovl_mkdir_real(struct inode *dir, struct dentry **newdentry,
-			  umode_t mode)
+int ovl_mkdir_real(struct inode *dir, struct dentry **newdentry, umode_t mode)
 {
 	int err;
 	struct dentry *d, *dentry = *newdentry;
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h b/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h
index 9199e1665311775ae70926df017498216f23f80e..76e096ad2ef90786cd7731c2ecdc578fbf3f4947 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h
@@ -411,6 +411,7 @@ struct ovl_cattr {
 
 #define OVL_CATTR(m) (&(struct ovl_cattr) { .mode = (m) })
 
+int ovl_mkdir_real(struct inode *dir, struct dentry **newdentry, umode_t mode);
 struct dentry *ovl_create_real(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *newdentry,
 			       struct ovl_cattr *attr);
 int ovl_cleanup(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry);
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/super.c b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
index 20c20f6210a5fd86dbbf03209b4a8a35668a79d3..6729999f4a66ce770252477fd3fc17de2b704168 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
@@ -654,10 +654,14 @@ static struct dentry *ovl_workdir_create(struct ovl_fs *ofs,
 			goto retry;
 		}
 
-		work = ovl_create_real(dir, work, OVL_CATTR(attr.ia_mode));
-		err = PTR_ERR(work);
-		if (IS_ERR(work))
-			goto out_err;
+		err = ovl_mkdir_real(dir, &work, attr.ia_mode);
+		if (err)
+			goto out_dput;
+
+		/* Weird filesystem returning with hashed negative (kernfs)? */
+		err = -EINVAL;
+		if (d_really_is_negative(work))
+			goto out_dput;
 
 		/*
 		 * Try to remove POSIX ACL xattrs from workdir.  We are good if: