diff --git a/net/sunrpc/auth_gss/auth_gss.c b/net/sunrpc/auth_gss/auth_gss.c
index 06fe17c2aea1..4ce42c62458e 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/auth_gss/auth_gss.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/auth_gss/auth_gss.c
@@ -551,6 +551,7 @@ gss_alloc_msg(struct gss_auth *gss_auth,
 	refcount_set(&gss_msg->count, 1);
 	gss_msg->uid = uid;
 	gss_msg->auth = gss_auth;
+	kref_get(&gss_auth->kref);
 	if (service_name) {
 		gss_msg->service_name = kstrdup_const(service_name, GFP_NOFS);
 		if (!gss_msg->service_name) {