diff --git a/net/core/sockev_nlmcast.c b/net/core/sockev_nlmcast.c
index 749ffb81c87c..3d7dabef6410 100644
--- a/net/core/sockev_nlmcast.c
+++ b/net/core/sockev_nlmcast.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2014-2015, The Linux Foundation. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2014-2015, 2018 The Linux Foundation. All rights reserved.
  *
  * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 and
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ static struct netlink_kernel_cfg nlcfg = {
 
 static void _sockev_event(unsigned long event, __u8 *evstr, int buflen)
 {
+	memset(evstr, 0, buflen);
+
 	switch (event) {
 	case SOCKEV_SOCKET:
 		strlcpy(evstr, "SOCKEV_SOCKET", buflen);