diff --git a/include/net/netlink.h b/include/net/netlink.h
index 0d698215d4d9..91907852da1c 100644
--- a/include/net/netlink.h
+++ b/include/net/netlink.h
@@ -200,8 +200,10 @@ enum {
  *    NLA_NUL_STRING       Maximum length of string (excluding NUL)
  *    NLA_FLAG             Unused
  *    NLA_BINARY           Maximum length of attribute payload
- *    NLA_NESTED           Don't use `len' field -- length verification is
- *                         done by checking len of nested header (or empty)
+ *    NLA_NESTED           Length verification is done by checking len of
+ *                         nested header (or empty); len field is used if
+ *                         validation_data is also used, for the max attr
+ *                         number in the nested policy.
  *    NLA_U8, NLA_U16,
  *    NLA_U32, NLA_U64,
  *    NLA_S8, NLA_S16,
@@ -224,6 +226,10 @@ enum {
  *    NLA_REJECT           This attribute is always rejected and validation data
  *                         may point to a string to report as the error instead
  *                         of the generic one in extended ACK.
+ *    NLA_NESTED           Points to a nested policy to validate, must also set
+ *                         `len' to the max attribute number.
+ *                         Note that nla_parse() will validate, but of course not
+ *                         parse, the nested sub-policies.
  *    All other            Unused
  *
  * Example:
@@ -247,6 +253,9 @@ struct nla_policy {
 #define NLA_POLICY_ETH_ADDR		NLA_POLICY_EXACT_LEN(ETH_ALEN)
 #define NLA_POLICY_ETH_ADDR_COMPAT	NLA_POLICY_EXACT_LEN_WARN(ETH_ALEN)
 
+#define NLA_POLICY_NESTED(maxattr, policy) \
+	{ .type = NLA_NESTED, .validation_data = policy, .len = maxattr }
+
 /**
  * struct nl_info - netlink source information
  * @nlh: Netlink message header of original request
diff --git a/lib/nlattr.c b/lib/nlattr.c
index 6e03d650bec4..04750f88477c 100644
--- a/lib/nlattr.c
+++ b/lib/nlattr.c
@@ -155,6 +155,20 @@ static int validate_nla(const struct nlattr *nla, int maxtype,
 		 */
 		if (attrlen == 0)
 			break;
+		if (attrlen < NLA_HDRLEN)
+			goto out_err;
+		if (pt->validation_data) {
+			err = nla_validate(nla_data(nla), nla_len(nla), pt->len,
+					   pt->validation_data, extack);
+			if (err < 0) {
+				/*
+				 * return directly to preserve the inner
+				 * error message/attribute pointer
+				 */
+				return err;
+			}
+		}
+		break;
 	default:
 		if (pt->len)
 			minlen = pt->len;