diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/memfd/memfd_test.c b/tools/testing/selftests/memfd/memfd_test.c
index 95af2d78fd31..0a0b55516028 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/memfd/memfd_test.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/memfd/memfd_test.c
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 #include <fcntl.h>
 #include <linux/memfd.h>
 #include <sched.h>
+#include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <signal.h>
@@ -1557,6 +1558,11 @@ static void test_share_fork(char *banner, char *b_suffix)
 	close(fd);
 }
 
+static bool pid_ns_supported(void)
+{
+	return access("/proc/self/ns/pid", F_OK) == 0;
+}
+
 int main(int argc, char **argv)
 {
 	pid_t pid;
@@ -1591,8 +1597,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	test_seal_grow();
 	test_seal_resize();
 
-	test_sysctl_simple();
-	test_sysctl_nested();
+	if (pid_ns_supported()) {
+		test_sysctl_simple();
+		test_sysctl_nested();
+	} else {
+		printf("PID namespaces are not supported; skipping sysctl tests\n");
+	}
 
 	test_share_dup("SHARE-DUP", "");
 	test_share_mmap("SHARE-MMAP", "");