diff --git a/fs/cifs/readdir.c b/fs/cifs/readdir.c
index 0557c45e9c33..b30a4a6d98a0 100644
--- a/fs/cifs/readdir.c
+++ b/fs/cifs/readdir.c
@@ -847,6 +847,7 @@ int cifs_readdir(struct file *file, struct dir_context *ctx)
 		 * if buggy server returns . and .. late do we want to
 		 * check for that here?
 		 */
+		*tmp_buf = 0;
 		rc = cifs_filldir(current_entry, file, ctx,
 				  tmp_buf, max_len);
 		if (rc) {