diff --git a/kernel/audit.c b/kernel/audit.c
index 4cebadb5f30d..eab7282668ab 100644
--- a/kernel/audit.c
+++ b/kernel/audit.c
@@ -1540,6 +1540,20 @@ static void audit_receive(struct sk_buff  *skb)
 		nlh = nlmsg_next(nlh, &len);
 	}
 	audit_ctl_unlock();
+
+	/* can't block with the ctrl lock, so penalize the sender now */
+	if (audit_backlog_limit &&
+	    (skb_queue_len(&audit_queue) > audit_backlog_limit)) {
+		DECLARE_WAITQUEUE(wait, current);
+
+		/* wake kauditd to try and flush the queue */
+		wake_up_interruptible(&kauditd_wait);
+
+		add_wait_queue_exclusive(&audit_backlog_wait, &wait);
+		set_current_state(TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);
+		schedule_timeout(audit_backlog_wait_time);
+		remove_wait_queue(&audit_backlog_wait, &wait);
+	}
 }
 
 /* Log information about who is connecting to the audit multicast socket */
@@ -1824,7 +1838,9 @@ struct audit_buffer *audit_log_start(struct audit_context *ctx, gfp_t gfp_mask,
 	 *    task_tgid_vnr() since auditd_pid is set in audit_receive_msg()
 	 *    using a PID anchored in the caller's namespace
 	 * 2. generator holding the audit_cmd_mutex - we don't want to block
-	 *    while holding the mutex */
+	 *    while holding the mutex, although we do penalize the sender
+	 *    later in audit_receive() when it is safe to block
+	 */
 	if (!(auditd_test_task(current) || audit_ctl_owner_current())) {
 		long stime = audit_backlog_wait_time;