diff --git a/module/os/freebsd/zfs/zfs_acl.c b/module/os/freebsd/zfs/zfs_acl.c
index fb47013d06ef..3ef0f797f362 100644
--- a/module/os/freebsd/zfs/zfs_acl.c
+++ b/module/os/freebsd/zfs/zfs_acl.c
@@ -473,7 +473,7 @@ zfs_acl_node_alloc(size_t bytes)
 
 	aclnode = kmem_zalloc(sizeof (zfs_acl_node_t), KM_SLEEP);
 	if (bytes) {
-		aclnode->z_acldata = kmem_alloc(bytes, KM_SLEEP);
+		aclnode->z_acldata = kmem_zalloc(bytes, KM_SLEEP);
 		aclnode->z_allocdata = aclnode->z_acldata;
 		aclnode->z_allocsize = bytes;
 		aclnode->z_size = bytes;
diff --git a/module/os/linux/zfs/zfs_acl.c b/module/os/linux/zfs/zfs_acl.c
index e83672c468fa..eccd280c494a 100644
--- a/module/os/linux/zfs/zfs_acl.c
+++ b/module/os/linux/zfs/zfs_acl.c
@@ -472,7 +472,7 @@ zfs_acl_node_alloc(size_t bytes)
 
 	aclnode = kmem_zalloc(sizeof (zfs_acl_node_t), KM_SLEEP);
 	if (bytes) {
-		aclnode->z_acldata = kmem_alloc(bytes, KM_SLEEP);
+		aclnode->z_acldata = kmem_zalloc(bytes, KM_SLEEP);
 		aclnode->z_allocdata = aclnode->z_acldata;
 		aclnode->z_allocsize = bytes;
 		aclnode->z_size = bytes;