diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/init.c b/arch/x86/mm/init.c
index c0e28a1..947f42ab 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/init.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/init.c
@@ -364,8 +364,9 @@
 	/*
 	 * We just marked the kernel text read only above, now that
 	 * we are going to free part of that, we need to make that
-	 * writeable first.
+	 * writeable and non-executable first.
 	 */
+	set_memory_nx(begin, (end - begin) >> PAGE_SHIFT);
 	set_memory_rw(begin, (end - begin) >> PAGE_SHIFT);
 
 	printk(KERN_INFO "Freeing %s: %luk freed\n", what, (end - begin) >> 10);