inode->i_op = &ext4_symlink_inode_operations;
                        ext4_set_aops(inode);
                }
-       } else {
+       } else if (S_ISCHR(inode->i_mode) || S_ISBLK(inode->i_mode) ||
+             S_ISFIFO(inode->i_mode) || S_ISSOCK(inode->i_mode)) {
                inode->i_op = &ext4_special_inode_operations;
                if (raw_inode->i_block[0])
                        init_special_inode(inode, inode->i_mode,
                else
                        init_special_inode(inode, inode->i_mode,
                           new_decode_dev(le32_to_cpu(raw_inode->i_block[1])));
+       } else {
+               brelse(bh);
+               ret = -EIO;
+               ext4_error(inode->i_sb, __func__, 
+                          "bogus i_mode (%o) for inode=%lu",
+                          inode->i_mode, inode->i_ino);
+               goto bad_inode;
        }
        brelse(iloc.bh);
        ext4_set_inode_flags(inode);