diff --git a/kernel/exit.c b/kernel/exit.c
index abcd93ce4e18..c33ecde016de 100644
--- a/kernel/exit.c
+++ b/kernel/exit.c
@@ -258,7 +258,8 @@ void release_task(struct task_struct *p)
 	pidfs_exit(p);
 	cgroup_release(p);
 
-	thread_pid = get_pid(p->thread_pid);
+	/* Retrieve @thread_pid before __unhash_process() may set it to NULL. */
+	thread_pid = task_pid(p);
 
 	write_lock_irq(&tasklist_lock);
 	ptrace_release_task(p);
@@ -287,8 +288,8 @@ void release_task(struct task_struct *p)
 	}
 
 	write_unlock_irq(&tasklist_lock);
+	/* @thread_pid can't go away until free_pids() below */
 	proc_flush_pid(thread_pid);
-	put_pid(thread_pid);
 	add_device_randomness(&p->se.sum_exec_runtime,
 			      sizeof(p->se.sum_exec_runtime));
 	free_pids(post.pids);