diff --git a/net/ipv4/devinet.c b/net/ipv4/devinet.c
index a27d034c85cc..603a3495afa6 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/devinet.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/devinet.c
@@ -1989,7 +1989,7 @@ static int inet_set_link_af(struct net_device *dev, const struct nlattr *nla)
 		return -EAFNOSUPPORT;
 
 	if (nla_parse_nested_deprecated(tb, IFLA_INET_MAX, nla, NULL, NULL) < 0)
-		BUG();
+		return -EINVAL;
 
 	if (tb[IFLA_INET_CONF]) {
 		nla_for_each_nested(a, tb[IFLA_INET_CONF], rem)
diff --git a/net/ipv6/addrconf.c b/net/ipv6/addrconf.c
index 52feab2baeee..366c3792b860 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/addrconf.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/addrconf.c
@@ -5761,7 +5761,7 @@ static int inet6_set_link_af(struct net_device *dev, const struct nlattr *nla)
 		return -EAFNOSUPPORT;
 
 	if (nla_parse_nested_deprecated(tb, IFLA_INET6_MAX, nla, NULL, NULL) < 0)
-		BUG();
+		return -EINVAL;
 
 	if (tb[IFLA_INET6_TOKEN]) {
 		err = inet6_set_iftoken(idev, nla_data(tb[IFLA_INET6_TOKEN]));