diff --git a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
index a4bafbf15097..dd85320907cb 100644
--- a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
+++ b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
@@ -1788,7 +1788,7 @@ void netlink_ack(struct sk_buff *in_skb, struct nlmsghdr *nlh, int err)
 	}
 
 	rep = __nlmsg_put(skb, NETLINK_CB(in_skb).pid, nlh->nlmsg_seq,
-			  NLMSG_ERROR, sizeof(struct nlmsgerr), 0);
+			  NLMSG_ERROR, payload, 0);
 	errmsg = nlmsg_data(rep);
 	errmsg->error = err;
 	memcpy(&errmsg->msg, nlh, err ? nlh->nlmsg_len : sizeof(*nlh));