diff --git a/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c b/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
index 93bc4f83b73e..a52458435327 100644
--- a/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
+++ b/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
@@ -124,7 +124,17 @@ static inline void put_ei(struct eventfs_inode *ei)
 static inline void free_ei(struct eventfs_inode *ei)
 {
 	if (ei) {
+		/* The ei should have no children if it is being freed. */
+		WARN_ON_ONCE(!list_empty(&ei->children));
 		ei->is_freed = 1;
+		/*
+		 * The SRCU iteration has a smp_rmb() to make sure it
+		 * sees a child (that may have already been freed)
+		 * before it reads is_free. If is_free is set, it must
+		 * not use the child it acquired from ei->children, as
+		 * the list may be used for SRCU.
+		 */
+		smp_wmb();
 		put_ei(ei);
 	}
 }
@@ -627,6 +637,20 @@ static int eventfs_iterate(struct file *file, struct dir_context *ctx)
 	list_for_each_entry_srcu(ei_child, &ei->children, list,
 				 srcu_read_lock_held(&eventfs_srcu)) {
 
+		/*
+		 * If the ei is being freed, then the ei->children may be
+		 * being used as the rcu list, which means the next element
+		 * may be garbage. The ei->is_free is set before switching
+		 * the ei->children over to ei->rcu. The read memory barrier
+		 * here makes sure the ei_child is read before is_free is
+		 * updated.
+		 *
+		 * Matches the smp_wmb() in free_ei()
+		 */
+		smp_rmb();
+		if (ei->is_freed)
+			return -EINVAL;
+
 		if (c > 0) {
 			c--;
 			continue;
diff --git a/fs/tracefs/internal.h b/fs/tracefs/internal.h
index a4a7f8431aff..c61481d04c8e 100644
--- a/fs/tracefs/internal.h
+++ b/fs/tracefs/internal.h
@@ -46,11 +46,11 @@ struct eventfs_attr {
  * @ino:	The saved inode number
  */
 struct eventfs_inode {
+	struct list_head	list;
 	union {
-		struct list_head	list;
+		struct list_head	children;
 		struct rcu_head		rcu;
 	};
-	struct list_head		children;
 	const struct eventfs_entry	*entries;
 	const char			*name;
 	struct eventfs_attr		*entry_attrs;