diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh
index 7a1bf94c5bd38bc9837b87911a082a1ef287eee8..5922941e70c6ce09809a339ac5614b647a401572 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ check_xfrm() {
 	# 1: iptables -m policy rule count != 0
 	rval=$1
 	ip=$2
-	lret=0
+	local lret=0
 
 	ip netns exec ns1 ping -q -c 1 10.0.2.$ip > /dev/null