diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_sk_lookup.c b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_sk_lookup.c
index 38b7a1fe67b6..6058dcb11b36 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_sk_lookup.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_sk_lookup.c
@@ -418,9 +418,15 @@ int ctx_narrow_access(struct bpf_sk_lookup *ctx)
 	if (LSW(ctx->remote_port, 0) != SRC_PORT)
 		return SK_DROP;
 
-	/* Load from remote_port field with zero padding (backward compatibility) */
+	/*
+	 * NOTE: 4-byte load from bpf_sk_lookup at remote_port offset
+	 * is quirky. It gets rewritten by the access converter to a
+	 * 2-byte load for backward compatibility. Treating the load
+	 * result as a be16 value makes the code portable across
+	 * little- and big-endian platforms.
+	 */
 	val_u32 = *(__u32 *)&ctx->remote_port;
-	if (val_u32 != bpf_htonl(bpf_ntohs(SRC_PORT) << 16))
+	if (val_u32 != SRC_PORT)
 		return SK_DROP;
 
 	/* Narrow loads from local_port field. Expect DST_PORT. */