diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index 11445f72c1c0..e0baadf90aed 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -1995,8 +1995,14 @@ static __latent_entropy struct task_struct *copy_process(
 	p = dup_task_struct(current, node);
 	if (!p)
 		goto fork_out;
-	if (args->io_thread)
+	if (args->io_thread) {
+		/*
+		 * Mark us an IO worker, and block any signal that isn't
+		 * fatal or STOP
+		 */
 		p->flags |= PF_IO_WORKER;
+		siginitsetinv(&p->blocked, sigmask(SIGKILL)|sigmask(SIGSTOP));
+	}
 
 	cpufreq_task_times_init(p);
 
@@ -2494,14 +2500,8 @@ struct task_struct *create_io_thread(int (*fn)(void *), void *arg, int node)
 		.stack_size	= (unsigned long)arg,
 		.io_thread	= 1,
 	};
-	struct task_struct *tsk;
 
-	tsk = copy_process(NULL, 0, node, &args);
-	if (!IS_ERR(tsk)) {
-		sigfillset(&tsk->blocked);
-		sigdelsetmask(&tsk->blocked, sigmask(SIGKILL));
-	}
-	return tsk;
+	return copy_process(NULL, 0, node, &args);
 }
 
 /*