diff --git a/kernel/kthread.c b/kernel/kthread.c
index a3f95c90456b..0dbff3b68ffb 100644
--- a/kernel/kthread.c
+++ b/kernel/kthread.c
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ static void kthread_fetch_affinity(struct kthread *kthread, struct cpumask *cpum
 	}
 
 	cpumask_and(cpumask, pref, housekeeping_cpumask(HK_TYPE_DOMAIN));
-	if (cpumask_empty(cpumask))
+	if (!cpumask_intersects(cpumask, cpu_online_mask))
 		cpumask_copy(cpumask, housekeeping_cpumask(HK_TYPE_DOMAIN));
 }