diff --git a/mm/kasan/common.c b/mm/kasan/common.c
index 2277b82902d8..95d16a42db6b 100644
--- a/mm/kasan/common.c
+++ b/mm/kasan/common.c
@@ -407,8 +407,14 @@ static inline bool shadow_invalid(u8 tag, s8 shadow_byte)
 	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KASAN_GENERIC))
 		return shadow_byte < 0 ||
 			shadow_byte >= KASAN_SHADOW_SCALE_SIZE;
-	else
-		return tag != (u8)shadow_byte;
+
+	/* else CONFIG_KASAN_SW_TAGS: */
+	if ((u8)shadow_byte == KASAN_TAG_INVALID)
+		return true;
+	if ((tag != KASAN_TAG_KERNEL) && (tag != (u8)shadow_byte))
+		return true;
+
+	return false;
 }
 
 static bool __kasan_slab_free(struct kmem_cache *cache, void *object,