diff --git a/net/ipv6/addrconf.c b/net/ipv6/addrconf.c
index 39d861d0037719ecb02a3341b923d412b5cdc0c1..cb493e15959c4d1bb68cf30f4099a8daa785bb84 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/addrconf.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/addrconf.c
@@ -5718,6 +5718,9 @@ static int inet6_set_link_af(struct net_device *dev, const struct nlattr *nla)
 	struct nlattr *tb[IFLA_INET6_MAX + 1];
 	int err;
 
+	if (!idev)
+		return -EAFNOSUPPORT;
+
 	if (nla_parse_nested_deprecated(tb, IFLA_INET6_MAX, nla, NULL, NULL) < 0)
 		BUG();