diff --git a/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c b/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
index 816275b2135f..d3455585e6a8 100644
--- a/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
+++ b/net/ipv6/ip6_output.c
@@ -177,7 +177,13 @@ ip6_finish_output_gso_slowpath_drop(struct net *net, struct sock *sk,
 		int err;
 
 		skb_mark_not_on_list(segs);
-		err = ip6_fragment(net, sk, segs, ip6_finish_output2);
+		/* Last GSO segment can be smaller than gso_size (and MTU).
+		 * Adding a fragment header would produce an "atomic fragment",
+		 * which is considered harmful (RFC-8021). Avoid that.
+		 */
+		err = segs->len > mtu ?
+			ip6_fragment(net, sk, segs, ip6_finish_output2) :
+			ip6_finish_output2(net, sk, segs);
 		if (err && ret == 0)
 			ret = err;
 	}