diff --git a/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go b/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go
index 5aec8349898..0bb8703874e 100644
--- a/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go
+++ b/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go
@@ -76,6 +76,12 @@ func applyOOMScoreAdj(pid int, oomScoreAdj int) error {
 			continue
 		}
 		if _, err := f.Write([]byte(value)); err != nil {
+			// we can ignore the return value of f.Close() here.
+			f.Close()
+			err = fmt.Errorf("failed to apply oom-score-adj to pid %d (%v)", pid, err)
+			continue
+		}
+		if err = f.Close(); err != nil {
 			err = fmt.Errorf("failed to apply oom-score-adj to pid %d (%v)", pid, err)
 			continue
 		}