diff --git a/fs/nfs/idmap.c b/fs/nfs/idmap.c
index dec47ed8b6b9aae84cd9d5071d098870a0267d44..4e2d9b6b1380394cdeca41f0d632eff513b241b8 100644
--- a/fs/nfs/idmap.c
+++ b/fs/nfs/idmap.c
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ static ssize_t nfs_idmap_get_desc(const char *name, size_t namelen,
 	size_t desclen = typelen + namelen + 2;
 
 	*desc = kmalloc(desclen, GFP_KERNEL);
-	if (!desc)
+	if (!*desc)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
 	cp = *desc;