diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en_accel/ipsec.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en_accel/ipsec.c
index 65678e89aea6..0d4b8aef6add 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en_accel/ipsec.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en_accel/ipsec.c
@@ -121,7 +121,14 @@ static bool mlx5e_ipsec_update_esn_state(struct mlx5e_ipsec_sa_entry *sa_entry)
 	if (x->xso.type == XFRM_DEV_OFFLOAD_CRYPTO)
 		esn_msb = xfrm_replay_seqhi(x, htonl(seq_bottom));
 
-	sa_entry->esn_state.esn = esn;
+	if (sa_entry->esn_state.esn_msb)
+		sa_entry->esn_state.esn = esn;
+	else
+		/* According to RFC4303, section "3.3.3. Sequence Number Generation",
+		 * the first packet sent using a given SA will contain a sequence
+		 * number of 1.
+		 */
+		sa_entry->esn_state.esn = max_t(u32, esn, 1);
 	sa_entry->esn_state.esn_msb = esn_msb;
 
 	if (unlikely(overlap && seq_bottom < MLX5E_IPSEC_ESN_SCOPE_MID)) {