diff --git a/fs/nilfs2/inode.c b/fs/nilfs2/inode.c
index 7e4edc588d62..fa050a01577d 100644
--- a/fs/nilfs2/inode.c
+++ b/fs/nilfs2/inode.c
@@ -525,11 +525,18 @@ static int __nilfs_read_inode(struct super_block *sb,
 		inode->i_op = &nilfs_symlink_inode_operations;
 		inode_nohighmem(inode);
 		inode->i_mapping->a_ops = &nilfs_aops;
-	} else {
+	} else if (S_ISCHR(inode->i_mode) || S_ISBLK(inode->i_mode) ||
+		   S_ISFIFO(inode->i_mode) || S_ISSOCK(inode->i_mode)) {
 		inode->i_op = &nilfs_special_inode_operations;
 		init_special_inode(
 			inode, inode->i_mode,
 			huge_decode_dev(le64_to_cpu(raw_inode->i_device_code)));
+	} else {
+		nilfs_error(sb,
+			    "invalid file type bits in mode 0%o for inode %lu",
+			    inode->i_mode, ino);
+		err = -EIO;
+		goto failed_unmap;
 	}
 	nilfs_ifile_unmap_inode(root->ifile, ino, bh);
 	brelse(bh);