diff --git a/include/linux/nsproxy.h b/include/linux/nsproxy.h
index 5a67648721c7..dc2447f5f092 100644
--- a/include/linux/nsproxy.h
+++ b/include/linux/nsproxy.h
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ void exit_cred_namespaces(struct task_struct *tsk);
 void switch_task_namespaces(struct task_struct *tsk, struct nsproxy *new);
 int exec_task_namespaces(void);
 void deactivate_nsproxy(struct nsproxy *ns);
+void nsproxy_free(struct nsproxy *ns);
 int unshare_nsproxy_namespaces(unsigned long, struct nsproxy **,
 	struct cred *, struct fs_struct *);
 int __init nsproxy_cache_init(void);
diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index da48168c504f..d442cd68a37a 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -3338,8 +3338,9 @@ int ksys_unshare(unsigned long unshare_flags)
 	perf_event_namespaces(current);
 
 bad_unshare_cleanup_nsproxy:
+	/* never installed, so no active references to drop */
 	if (new_nsproxy)
-		put_nsproxy(new_nsproxy);
+		nsproxy_free(new_nsproxy);
 bad_unshare_cleanup_cred:
 	if (new_cred)
 		put_cred(new_cred);
diff --git a/kernel/nsproxy.c b/kernel/nsproxy.c
index d9d3d5973bf5..3fb1595a4a59 100644
--- a/kernel/nsproxy.c
+++ b/kernel/nsproxy.c
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ static inline struct nsproxy *create_nsproxy(void)
 	return nsproxy;
 }
 
-static inline void nsproxy_free(struct nsproxy *ns)
+void nsproxy_free(struct nsproxy *ns)
 {
 	put_mnt_ns(ns->mnt_ns);
 	put_uts_ns(ns->uts_ns);