diff --git a/fs/file.c b/fs/file.c
index 5f9c802a5d8d..c942c89ca4cd 100644
--- a/fs/file.c
+++ b/fs/file.c
@@ -1003,7 +1003,16 @@ static unsigned long __fget_light(unsigned int fd, fmode_t mask)
 	struct files_struct *files = current->files;
 	struct file *file;
 
-	if (atomic_read(&files->count) == 1) {
+	/*
+	 * If another thread is concurrently calling close_fd() followed
+	 * by put_files_struct(), we must not observe the old table
+	 * entry combined with the new refcount - otherwise we could
+	 * return a file that is concurrently being freed.
+	 *
+	 * atomic_read_acquire() pairs with atomic_dec_and_test() in
+	 * put_files_struct().
+	 */
+	if (atomic_read_acquire(&files->count) == 1) {
 		file = files_lookup_fd_raw(files, fd);
 		if (!file || unlikely(file->f_mode & mask))
 			return 0;