diff --git a/src/syscall/exec_linux.go b/src/syscall/exec_linux.go
index 0009080d681f93..43ed57157220a8 100644
--- a/src/syscall/exec_linux.go
+++ b/src/syscall/exec_linux.go
@@ -839,3 +839,11 @@ func doCheckClonePidfd(pidfd *int32) (pid uintptr, errno Errno) {
 		RawSyscall(SYS_EXIT_GROUP, 0, 0, 0)
 	}
 }
+
+// forkAndExecFailureCleanup cleans up after an exec failure.
+func forkAndExecFailureCleanup(attr *ProcAttr, sys *SysProcAttr) {
+	if sys.PidFD != nil && *sys.PidFD != -1 {
+		Close(*sys.PidFD)
+		*sys.PidFD = -1
+	}
+}