diff --git a/fs/btrfs/ioctl.c b/fs/btrfs/ioctl.c
index 2429ae87ad443..f70ee61dfb701 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/ioctl.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/ioctl.c
@@ -1290,6 +1290,15 @@ static noinline int __btrfs_ioctl_snap_create(struct file *file,
 			 * are limited to own subvolumes only
 			 */
 			ret = -EPERM;
+		} else if (btrfs_ino(BTRFS_I(src_inode)) != BTRFS_FIRST_FREE_OBJECTID) {
+			/*
+			 * Snapshots must be made with the src_inode referring
+			 * to the subvolume inode, otherwise the permission
+			 * checking above is useless because we may have
+			 * permission on a lower directory but not the subvol
+			 * itself.
+			 */
+			ret = -EINVAL;
 		} else {
 			ret = btrfs_mksnapshot(&file->f_path, idmap,
 					       name, namelen,