diff --git a/net/l2tp/l2tp_eth.c b/net/l2tp/l2tp_eth.c
index 750662de735e..facc180d1635 100644
--- a/net/l2tp/l2tp_eth.c
+++ b/net/l2tp/l2tp_eth.c
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ struct l2tp_eth {
 
 /* via l2tp_session_priv() */
 struct l2tp_eth_sess {
-	struct net_device	*dev;
+	struct net_device __rcu *dev;
 };
 
 
@@ -72,7 +72,14 @@ static int l2tp_eth_dev_init(struct net_device *dev)
 
 static void l2tp_eth_dev_uninit(struct net_device *dev)
 {
-	dev_put(dev);
+	struct l2tp_eth *priv = netdev_priv(dev);
+	struct l2tp_eth_sess *spriv;
+
+	spriv = l2tp_session_priv(priv->session);
+	RCU_INIT_POINTER(spriv->dev, NULL);
+	/* No need for synchronize_net() here. We're called by
+	 * unregister_netdev*(), which does the synchronisation for us.
+	 */
 }
 
 static int l2tp_eth_dev_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev)
@@ -126,8 +133,8 @@ static void l2tp_eth_dev_setup(struct net_device *dev)
 static void l2tp_eth_dev_recv(struct l2tp_session *session, struct sk_buff *skb, int data_len)
 {
 	struct l2tp_eth_sess *spriv = l2tp_session_priv(session);
-	struct net_device *dev = spriv->dev;
-	struct l2tp_eth *priv = netdev_priv(dev);
+	struct net_device *dev;
+	struct l2tp_eth *priv;
 
 	if (session->debug & L2TP_MSG_DATA) {
 		unsigned int length;
@@ -151,16 +158,25 @@ static void l2tp_eth_dev_recv(struct l2tp_session *session, struct sk_buff *skb,
 	skb_dst_drop(skb);
 	nf_reset(skb);
 
+	rcu_read_lock();
+	dev = rcu_dereference(spriv->dev);
+	if (!dev)
+		goto error_rcu;
+
+	priv = netdev_priv(dev);
 	if (dev_forward_skb(dev, skb) == NET_RX_SUCCESS) {
 		atomic_long_inc(&priv->rx_packets);
 		atomic_long_add(data_len, &priv->rx_bytes);
 	} else {
 		atomic_long_inc(&priv->rx_errors);
 	}
+	rcu_read_unlock();
+
 	return;
 
+error_rcu:
+	rcu_read_unlock();
 error:
-	atomic_long_inc(&priv->rx_errors);
 	kfree_skb(skb);
 }
 
@@ -171,11 +187,15 @@ static void l2tp_eth_delete(struct l2tp_session *session)
 
 	if (session) {
 		spriv = l2tp_session_priv(session);
-		dev = spriv->dev;
+
+		rtnl_lock();
+		dev = rtnl_dereference(spriv->dev);
 		if (dev) {
-			unregister_netdev(dev);
-			spriv->dev = NULL;
+			unregister_netdevice(dev);
+			rtnl_unlock();
 			module_put(THIS_MODULE);
+		} else {
+			rtnl_unlock();
 		}
 	}
 }
@@ -185,9 +205,20 @@ static void l2tp_eth_show(struct seq_file *m, void *arg)
 {
 	struct l2tp_session *session = arg;
 	struct l2tp_eth_sess *spriv = l2tp_session_priv(session);
-	struct net_device *dev = spriv->dev;
+	struct net_device *dev;
+
+	rcu_read_lock();
+	dev = rcu_dereference(spriv->dev);
+	if (!dev) {
+		rcu_read_unlock();
+		return;
+	}
+	dev_hold(dev);
+	rcu_read_unlock();
 
 	seq_printf(m, "   interface %s\n", dev->name);
+
+	dev_put(dev);
 }
 #endif
 
@@ -254,7 +285,7 @@ static int l2tp_eth_create(struct net *net, struct l2tp_tunnel *tunnel,
 		if (dev) {
 			dev_put(dev);
 			rc = -EEXIST;
-			goto out;
+			goto err;
 		}
 		strlcpy(name, cfg->ifname, IFNAMSIZ);
 	} else
@@ -264,21 +295,14 @@ static int l2tp_eth_create(struct net *net, struct l2tp_tunnel *tunnel,
 				      peer_session_id, cfg);
 	if (IS_ERR(session)) {
 		rc = PTR_ERR(session);
-		goto out;
-	}
-
-	l2tp_session_inc_refcount(session);
-	rc = l2tp_session_register(session, tunnel);
-	if (rc < 0) {
-		kfree(session);
-		goto out;
+		goto err;
 	}
 
 	dev = alloc_netdev(sizeof(*priv), name, NET_NAME_UNKNOWN,
 			   l2tp_eth_dev_setup);
 	if (!dev) {
 		rc = -ENOMEM;
-		goto out_del_session;
+		goto err_sess;
 	}
 
 	dev_net_set(dev, net);
@@ -296,28 +320,48 @@ static int l2tp_eth_create(struct net *net, struct l2tp_tunnel *tunnel,
 #endif
 
 	spriv = l2tp_session_priv(session);
-	spriv->dev = dev;
 
-	rc = register_netdev(dev);
-	if (rc < 0)
-		goto out_del_dev;
+	l2tp_session_inc_refcount(session);
+
+	rtnl_lock();
+
+	/* Register both device and session while holding the rtnl lock. This
+	 * ensures that l2tp_eth_delete() will see that there's a device to
+	 * unregister, even if it happened to run before we assign spriv->dev.
+	 */
+	rc = l2tp_session_register(session, tunnel);
+	if (rc < 0) {
+		rtnl_unlock();
+		goto err_sess_dev;
+	}
+
+	rc = register_netdevice(dev);
+	if (rc < 0) {
+		rtnl_unlock();
+		l2tp_session_delete(session);
+		l2tp_session_dec_refcount(session);
+		free_netdev(dev);
+
+		return rc;
+	}
 
-	__module_get(THIS_MODULE);
-	/* Must be done after register_netdev() */
 	strlcpy(session->ifname, dev->name, IFNAMSIZ);
+	rcu_assign_pointer(spriv->dev, dev);
+
+	rtnl_unlock();
+
 	l2tp_session_dec_refcount(session);
 
-	dev_hold(dev);
+	__module_get(THIS_MODULE);
 
 	return 0;
 
-out_del_dev:
-	free_netdev(dev);
-	spriv->dev = NULL;
-out_del_session:
-	l2tp_session_delete(session);
+err_sess_dev:
 	l2tp_session_dec_refcount(session);
-out:
+	free_netdev(dev);
+err_sess:
+	kfree(session);
+err:
 	return rc;
 }
 
