diff --git a/[refs] b/[refs]
index b2c449b97a96..411fe5e88a1f 100644
--- a/[refs]
+++ b/[refs]
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ---
-refs/heads/master: d87798450a7635ab1bcc80271a13ce4a53b016a9
+refs/heads/master: 96ca4a2cc1454cf633a1e0796b7ef39d937b87ec
diff --git a/trunk/net/core/dev.c b/trunk/net/core/dev.c
index e91390533999..a90737fe2472 100644
--- a/trunk/net/core/dev.c
+++ b/trunk/net/core/dev.c
@@ -967,6 +967,14 @@ int dev_set_alias(struct net_device *dev, const char *alias, size_t len)
 	if (len >= IFALIASZ)
 		return -EINVAL;
 
+	if (!len) {
+		if (dev->ifalias) {
+			kfree(dev->ifalias);
+			dev->ifalias = NULL;
+		}
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	dev->ifalias = krealloc(dev->ifalias, len+1, GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!dev->ifalias)
 		return -ENOMEM;