diff --git a/net/netrom/nr_route.c b/net/netrom/nr_route.c
index b94cb2ffbaf8..88e9328e594a 100644
--- a/net/netrom/nr_route.c
+++ b/net/netrom/nr_route.c
@@ -752,7 +752,7 @@ int nr_route_frame(struct sk_buff *skb, ax25_cb *ax25)
 	unsigned char *dptr;
 	ax25_cb *ax25s;
 	int ret;
-	struct sk_buff *skbn;
+	struct sk_buff *nskb, *oskb;
 
 	/*
 	 * Reject malformed packets early. Check that it contains at least 2
@@ -811,14 +811,14 @@ int nr_route_frame(struct sk_buff *skb, ax25_cb *ax25)
 	/* We are going to change the netrom headers so we should get our
 	   own skb, we also did not know until now how much header space
 	   we had to reserve... - RXQ */
-	if ((skbn=skb_copy_expand(skb, dev->hard_header_len, 0, GFP_ATOMIC)) == NULL) {
+	if ((nskb = skb_copy_expand(skb, dev->hard_header_len, 0, GFP_ATOMIC)) == NULL) {
 		nr_node_unlock(nr_node);
 		nr_node_put(nr_node);
 		dev_put(dev);
 		return 0;
 	}
-	kfree_skb(skb);
-	skb=skbn;
+	oskb = skb;
+	skb = nskb;
 	skb->data[14]--;
 
 	dptr  = skb_push(skb, 1);
@@ -837,6 +837,8 @@ int nr_route_frame(struct sk_buff *skb, ax25_cb *ax25)
 	nr_node_unlock(nr_node);
 	nr_node_put(nr_node);
 
+	if (ret)
+		kfree_skb(oskb);
 	return ret;
 }