diff --git a/mm/util.c b/mm/util.c
index 4ddb6e186dd5..d5be67771850 100644
--- a/mm/util.c
+++ b/mm/util.c
@@ -756,7 +756,7 @@ int overcommit_policy_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write, void *buffer,
 		size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos)
 {
 	struct ctl_table t;
-	int new_policy;
+	int new_policy = -1;
 	int ret;
 
 	/*
@@ -774,7 +774,7 @@ int overcommit_policy_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write, void *buffer,
 		t = *table;
 		t.data = &new_policy;
 		ret = proc_dointvec_minmax(&t, write, buffer, lenp, ppos);
-		if (ret)
+		if (ret || new_policy == -1)
 			return ret;
 
 		mm_compute_batch(new_policy);