diff --git a/fs/proc/vmcore.c b/fs/proc/vmcore.c
index aaa7486b6f0d..0bfd71bec7f2 100644
--- a/fs/proc/vmcore.c
+++ b/fs/proc/vmcore.c
@@ -105,14 +105,19 @@ static ssize_t read_from_oldmem(char *buf, size_t count,
 			nr_bytes = count;
 
 		/* If pfn is not ram, return zeros for sparse dump files */
-		if (pfn_is_ram(pfn) == 0)
-			memset(buf, 0, nr_bytes);
-		else {
+		if (pfn_is_ram(pfn) == 0) {
+			tmp = 0;
+			if (!userbuf)
+				memset(buf, 0, nr_bytes);
+			else if (clear_user(buf, nr_bytes))
+				tmp = -EFAULT;
+		} else {
 			tmp = copy_oldmem_page(pfn, buf, nr_bytes,
 						offset, userbuf);
-			if (tmp < 0)
-				return tmp;
 		}
+		if (tmp < 0)
+			return tmp;
+
 		*ppos += nr_bytes;
 		count -= nr_bytes;
 		buf += nr_bytes;