diff --git a/kernel/bpf/core.c b/kernel/bpf/core.c
index 9380e0fd5e4a..1f51c8f20722 100644
--- a/kernel/bpf/core.c
+++ b/kernel/bpf/core.c
@@ -2953,7 +2953,10 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(bpf_event_output);
 
 /* Always built-in helper functions. */
 const struct bpf_func_proto bpf_tail_call_proto = {
-	.func		= NULL,
+	/* func is unused for tail_call, we set it to pass the
+	 * get_helper_proto check
+	 */
+	.func		= BPF_PTR_POISON,
 	.gpl_only	= false,
 	.ret_type	= RET_VOID,
 	.arg1_type	= ARG_PTR_TO_CTX,
diff --git a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
index 24ae8f33e5d7..6e22abf3326b 100644
--- a/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
+++ b/kernel/bpf/verifier.c
@@ -10465,7 +10465,7 @@ static int get_helper_proto(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, int func_id,
 		return -EINVAL;
 
 	*ptr = env->ops->get_func_proto(func_id, env->prog);
-	return *ptr ? 0 : -EINVAL;
+	return *ptr && (*ptr)->func ? 0 : -EINVAL;
 }
 
 static int check_helper_call(struct bpf_verifier_env *env, struct bpf_insn *insn,