diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/namei.c b/fs/overlayfs/namei.c
index 7f27ec5999ea..111a64f904c2 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/namei.c
@@ -539,7 +539,15 @@ int ovl_verify_index(struct ovl_fs *ofs, struct dentry *index)
 	upper = ovl_index_upper(ofs, index);
 	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(upper)) {
 		err = PTR_ERR(upper);
-		if (!err)
+		/*
+		 * Directory index entries with no 'upper' xattr need to be
+		 * removed. When dir index entry has a stale 'upper' xattr,
+		 * we assume that upper dir was removed and we treat the dir
+		 * index as orphan entry that needs to be whited out.
+		 */
+		if (err == -ESTALE)
+			goto orphan;
+		else if (!err)
 			err = -ESTALE;
 		goto fail;
 	}
@@ -556,7 +564,7 @@ int ovl_verify_index(struct ovl_fs *ofs, struct dentry *index)
 			goto fail;
 
 		if (ovl_get_nlink(origin.dentry, index, 0) == 0)
-			err = -ENOENT;
+			goto orphan;
 	}
 
 out:
@@ -568,6 +576,13 @@ int ovl_verify_index(struct ovl_fs *ofs, struct dentry *index)
 	pr_warn_ratelimited("overlayfs: failed to verify index (%pd2, ftype=%x, err=%i)\n",
 			    index, d_inode(index)->i_mode & S_IFMT, err);
 	goto out;
+
+orphan:
+	pr_warn_ratelimited("overlayfs: orphan index entry (%pd2, ftype=%x, nlink=%u)\n",
+			    index, d_inode(index)->i_mode & S_IFMT,
+			    d_inode(index)->i_nlink);
+	err = -ENOENT;
+	goto out;
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
index 4c660c7085b7..c11f5c0906c3 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
@@ -1067,12 +1067,33 @@ int ovl_indexdir_cleanup(struct ovl_fs *ofs)
 			break;
 		}
 		err = ovl_verify_index(ofs, index);
-		/* Cleanup stale and orphan index entries */
-		if (err && (err == -ESTALE || err == -ENOENT))
+		if (!err) {
+			goto next;
+		} else if (err == -ESTALE) {
+			/* Cleanup stale index entries */
 			err = ovl_cleanup(dir, index);
+		} else if (err != -ENOENT) {
+			/*
+			 * Abort mount to avoid corrupting the index if
+			 * an incompatible index entry was found or on out
+			 * of memory.
+			 */
+			break;
+		} else if (ofs->config.nfs_export) {
+			/*
+			 * Whiteout orphan index to block future open by
+			 * handle after overlay nlink dropped to zero.
+			 */
+			err = ovl_cleanup_and_whiteout(indexdir, dir, index);
+		} else {
+			/* Cleanup orphan index entries */
+			err = ovl_cleanup(dir, index);
+		}
+
 		if (err)
 			break;
 
+next:
 		dput(index);
 		index = NULL;
 	}