diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c
index e363bdaff59d..2ea438e6b8b1 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/userfaultfd.c
@@ -210,8 +210,10 @@ static void anon_release_pages(char *rel_area)
 
 static void anon_allocate_area(void **alloc_area)
 {
-	if (posix_memalign(alloc_area, page_size, nr_pages * page_size))
-		err("posix_memalign() failed");
+	*alloc_area = mmap(NULL, nr_pages * page_size, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
+			   MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_PRIVATE, -1, 0);
+	if (*alloc_area == MAP_FAILED)
+		err("mmap of anonymous memory failed");
 }
 
 static void noop_alias_mapping(__u64 *start, size_t len, unsigned long offset)