diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/namei.c b/fs/overlayfs/namei.c
index 0d9b8ce5ea43..a12dc10bf726 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/namei.c
@@ -405,14 +405,13 @@ int ovl_verify_index(struct dentry *index, struct path *lowerstack,
 	 * be treated as stale (i.e. after unlink of the overlay inode).
 	 * We don't know the verification rules for directory and whiteout
 	 * index entries, because they have not been implemented yet, so return
-	 * EROFS if those entries are found to avoid corrupting an index that
-	 * was created by a newer kernel.
+	 * EINVAL if those entries are found to abort the mount to avoid
+	 * corrupting an index that was created by a newer kernel.
 	 */
-	err = -EROFS;
+	err = -EINVAL;
 	if (d_is_dir(index) || ovl_is_whiteout(index))
 		goto fail;
 
-	err = -EINVAL;
 	if (index->d_name.len < sizeof(struct ovl_fh)*2)
 		goto fail;
 
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
index 0f85ee9c3268..698b74dd750e 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
@@ -1021,13 +1021,12 @@ int ovl_indexdir_cleanup(struct dentry *dentry, struct vfsmount *mnt,
 			break;
 		}
 		err = ovl_verify_index(index, lowerstack, numlower);
-		if (err) {
-			if (err == -EROFS)
-				break;
+		/* Cleanup stale and orphan index entries */
+		if (err && (err == -ESTALE || err == -ENOENT))
 			err = ovl_cleanup(dir, index);
-			if (err)
-				break;
-		}
+		if (err)
+			break;
+
 		dput(index);
 		index = NULL;
 	}