diff --git a/drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c b/drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c
index 3ec04787a737..d8f698af2631 100644
--- a/drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c
+++ b/drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c
@@ -1803,6 +1803,7 @@ static void i2c_deregister_clients(struct i2c_adapter *adap)
 void i2c_del_adapter(struct i2c_adapter *adap)
 {
 	struct i2c_adapter *found;
+	struct dentry *debugfs = adap->debugfs;
 
 	/* First make sure that this adapter was ever added */
 	mutex_lock(&core_lock);
@@ -1817,6 +1818,14 @@ void i2c_del_adapter(struct i2c_adapter *adap)
 
 	i2c_acpi_remove_space_handler(adap);
 
+	/*
+	 * Remove new_device/delete_device sysfs attrs early to prevent
+	 * new client registrations via userspace while we're tearing down.
+	 * kernfs will wait for any in-flight writes to complete.
+	 */
+	device_remove_file(&adap->dev, &dev_attr_new_device);
+	device_remove_file(&adap->dev, &dev_attr_delete_device);
+
 	i2c_deregister_clients(adap);
 
 	/* device name is gone after device_unregister */
@@ -1826,7 +1835,9 @@ void i2c_del_adapter(struct i2c_adapter *adap)
 
 	i2c_host_notify_irq_teardown(adap);
 
-	debugfs_remove_recursive(adap->debugfs);
+	/* Prevent concurrent i2c_device_probe() from dereferencing a freed dentry */
+	adap->debugfs = NULL;
+	debugfs_remove_recursive(debugfs);
 
 	/* wait until all references to the device are gone
 	 *