diff --git a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_dataset.c b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_dataset.c
index d6bc7bba9e..4238ecad61 100644
--- a/lib/libzfs/libzfs_dataset.c
+++ b/lib/libzfs/libzfs_dataset.c
@@ -3985,7 +3985,7 @@ zfs_smb_acl_mgmt(libzfs_handle_t *hdl, char *dataset, char *path,
 	if (cmd == ZFS_SMB_ACL_RENAME) {
 		if (nvlist_alloc(&nvlist, NV_UNIQUE_NAME, 0) != 0) {
 			(void) no_memory(hdl);
-			return (NULL);
+			return (-1);
 		}
 	}