diff --git a/security/integrity/evm/evm_main.c b/security/integrity/evm/evm_main.c
index 2be78a73d55805dbb7369381e51dcd7873fd0a72..5f8650c5902651d71d150e47a8622461d3c6cc61 100644
--- a/security/integrity/evm/evm_main.c
+++ b/security/integrity/evm/evm_main.c
@@ -90,6 +90,24 @@ static bool evm_key_loaded(void)
 	return (bool)(evm_initialized & EVM_KEY_MASK);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Ignoring INTEGRITY_NOLABEL/INTEGRITY_NOXATTRS is safe if no HMAC key
+ * is loaded and the EVM_SETUP_COMPLETE initialization flag is set.
+ */
+static bool evm_ignore_error_safe(enum integrity_status evm_status)
+{
+	if (evm_initialized & EVM_INIT_HMAC)
+		return false;
+
+	if (!(evm_initialized & EVM_SETUP_COMPLETE))
+		return false;
+
+	if (evm_status != INTEGRITY_NOLABEL && evm_status != INTEGRITY_NOXATTRS)
+		return false;
+
+	return true;
+}
+
 static int evm_find_protected_xattrs(struct dentry *dentry)
 {
 	struct inode *inode = d_backing_inode(dentry);
@@ -354,6 +372,8 @@ static int evm_protect_xattr(struct dentry *dentry, const char *xattr_name,
 				    -EPERM, 0);
 	}
 out:
+	if (evm_ignore_error_safe(evm_status))
+		return 0;
 	if (evm_status != INTEGRITY_PASS)
 		integrity_audit_msg(AUDIT_INTEGRITY_METADATA, d_backing_inode(dentry),
 				    dentry->d_name.name, "appraise_metadata",
@@ -515,7 +535,8 @@ int evm_inode_setattr(struct dentry *dentry, struct iattr *attr)
 		return 0;
 	evm_status = evm_verify_current_integrity(dentry);
 	if ((evm_status == INTEGRITY_PASS) ||
-	    (evm_status == INTEGRITY_NOXATTRS))
+	    (evm_status == INTEGRITY_NOXATTRS) ||
+	    (evm_ignore_error_safe(evm_status)))
 		return 0;
 	integrity_audit_msg(AUDIT_INTEGRITY_METADATA, d_backing_inode(dentry),
 			    dentry->d_name.name, "appraise_metadata",