diff --git a/mm/kmemleak.c b/mm/kmemleak.c
index d9ca0be4a610..559ceb4d187e 100644
--- a/mm/kmemleak.c
+++ b/mm/kmemleak.c
@@ -1670,8 +1670,7 @@ static void start_scan_thread(void)
 }
 
 /*
- * Stop the automatic memory scanning thread. This function must be called
- * with the scan_mutex held.
+ * Stop the automatic memory scanning thread.
  */
 static void stop_scan_thread(void)
 {
@@ -1934,12 +1933,15 @@ static void kmemleak_do_cleanup(struct work_struct *work)
 {
 	stop_scan_thread();
 
+	mutex_lock(&scan_mutex);
 	/*
-	 * Once the scan thread has stopped, it is safe to no longer track
-	 * object freeing. Ordering of the scan thread stopping and the memory
-	 * accesses below is guaranteed by the kthread_stop() function.
+	 * Once it is made sure that kmemleak_scan has stopped, it is safe to no
+	 * longer track object freeing. Ordering of the scan thread stopping and
+	 * the memory accesses below is guaranteed by the kthread_stop()
+	 * function.
 	 */
 	kmemleak_free_enabled = 0;
+	mutex_unlock(&scan_mutex);
 
 	if (!kmemleak_found_leaks)
 		__kmemleak_do_cleanup();