diff --git a/drivers/net/vrf.c b/drivers/net/vrf.c
index d6988db1930d6b38db5f932a81c6c64b9c76776a..7d909c8183e95a62b6f8a3182d3ce645a264e909 100644
--- a/drivers/net/vrf.c
+++ b/drivers/net/vrf.c
@@ -1128,7 +1128,7 @@ static int vrf_fib_rule(const struct net_device *dev, __u8 family, bool add_it)
 		goto nla_put_failure;
 
 	/* rule only needs to appear once */
-	nlh->nlmsg_flags &= NLM_F_EXCL;
+	nlh->nlmsg_flags |= NLM_F_EXCL;
 
 	frh = nlmsg_data(nlh);
 	memset(frh, 0, sizeof(*frh));