diff --git a/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c b/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c
index 8ca637a72697491863bf2f6f606c7a669932847f..0fa7c5ce3b2cf594bbc99f73a8454067eb50f499 100644
--- a/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c
+++ b/net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c
@@ -912,6 +912,7 @@ static void xfrm_policy_inexact_node_reinsert(struct net *net,
 		} else if (delta > 0) {
 			p = &parent->rb_right;
 		} else {
+			bool same_prefixlen = node->prefixlen == n->prefixlen;
 			struct xfrm_policy *tmp;
 
 			hlist_for_each_entry(tmp, &n->hhead, bydst) {
@@ -919,9 +920,11 @@ static void xfrm_policy_inexact_node_reinsert(struct net *net,
 				hlist_del_rcu(&tmp->bydst);
 			}
 
+			node->prefixlen = prefixlen;
+
 			xfrm_policy_inexact_list_reinsert(net, node, family);
 
-			if (node->prefixlen == n->prefixlen) {
+			if (same_prefixlen) {
 				kfree_rcu(n, rcu);
 				return;
 			}
@@ -929,7 +932,6 @@ static void xfrm_policy_inexact_node_reinsert(struct net *net,
 			rb_erase(*p, new);
 			kfree_rcu(n, rcu);
 			n = node;
-			n->prefixlen = prefixlen;
 			goto restart;
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh
index 5445943bf07f222acaba83a253668ec06db032e5..7a1bf94c5bd38bc9837b87911a082a1ef287eee8 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/xfrm_policy.sh
@@ -106,6 +106,13 @@ do_overlap()
     #
     # 10.0.0.0/24 and 10.0.1.0/24 nodes have been merged as 10.0.0.0/23.
     ip -net $ns xfrm policy add src 10.1.0.0/24 dst 10.0.0.0/23 dir fwd priority 200 action block
+
+    # similar to above: add policies (with partially random address), with shrinking prefixes.
+    for p in 29 28 27;do
+      for k in $(seq 1 32); do
+       ip -net $ns xfrm policy add src 10.253.1.$((RANDOM%255))/$p dst 10.254.1.$((RANDOM%255))/$p dir fwd priority $((200+k)) action block 2>/dev/null
+      done
+    done
 }
 
 do_esp_policy_get_check() {