diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
index 2b70c8b4cee2d..3cdd4fa37947b 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
@@ -790,6 +790,18 @@ xfs_ialloc(
 	}
 	ASSERT(*ialloc_context == NULL);
 
+	/*
+	 * Protect against obviously corrupt allocation btree records. Later
+	 * xfs_iget checks will catch re-allocation of other active in-memory
+	 * and on-disk inodes. If we don't catch reallocating the parent inode
+	 * here we will deadlock in xfs_iget() so we have to do these checks
+	 * first.
+	 */
+	if ((pip && ino == pip->i_ino) || !xfs_verify_dir_ino(mp, ino)) {
+		xfs_alert(mp, "Allocated a known in-use inode 0x%llx!", ino);
+		return -EFSCORRUPTED;
+	}
+
 	/*
 	 * Get the in-core inode with the lock held exclusively.
 	 * This is because we're setting fields here we need