diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
index 28d399de26f3..160960bb0ad0 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
@@ -1077,11 +1077,9 @@ int ovl_check_empty_dir(struct dentry *dentry, struct list_head *list)
 	int err;
 	struct ovl_cache_entry *p, *n;
 	struct rb_root root = RB_ROOT;
-	const struct cred *old_cred;
 
-	old_cred = ovl_override_creds(dentry->d_sb);
-	err = ovl_dir_read_merged(dentry, list, &root);
-	ovl_revert_creds(old_cred);
+	with_ovl_creds(dentry->d_sb)
+		err = ovl_dir_read_merged(dentry, list, &root);
 	if (err)
 		return err;