diff --git a/fs/ntfs3/inode.c b/fs/ntfs3/inode.c
index 6e65066ebcc1..398913595a55 100644
--- a/fs/ntfs3/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ntfs3/inode.c
@@ -432,6 +432,11 @@ static struct inode *ntfs_read_mft(struct inode *inode,
 		ni->mi.dirty = true;
 	}
 
+	if (!links) {
+		err = -EINVAL;
+		goto out;
+	}
+
 	set_nlink(inode, links);
 
 	if (S_ISDIR(mode)) {