diff --git a/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c b/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
index ee736861b18f..643d412ac623 100644
--- a/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
+++ b/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
@@ -1404,7 +1404,8 @@ void set_process_cpu_timer(struct task_struct *tsk, unsigned int clkid,
 			}
 		}
 
-		*newval += now;
+		if (*newval)
+			*newval += now;
 	}
 
 	/*