diff --git a/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c b/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c
index 451cefc2d0da..ccd7457f92bf 100644
--- a/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c
+++ b/tools/bpf/bpftool/main.c
@@ -435,6 +435,16 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 
 	setlinebuf(stdout);
 
+#ifdef USE_LIBCAP
+	/* Libcap < 2.63 hooks before main() to compute the number of
+	 * capabilities of the running kernel, and doing so it calls prctl()
+	 * which may fail and set errno to non-zero.
+	 * Let's reset errno to make sure this does not interfere with the
+	 * batch mode.
+	 */
+	errno = 0;
+#endif
+
 	last_do_help = do_help;
 	pretty_output = false;
 	json_output = false;