diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcProgram.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcProgram.java
index 252eae64b5..5364712646 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcProgram.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcProgram.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 import io.netty.buffer.Unpooled;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelHandlerContext;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter;
+import io.netty.util.ReferenceCountUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.classification.VisibleForTesting;
 import org.apache.hadoop.oncrpc.RpcAcceptedReply.AcceptState;
 import org.apache.hadoop.oncrpc.security.VerifierNone;
@@ -163,8 +164,16 @@ public void stopDaemons() {}
   public void channelRead(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Object msg)
       throws Exception {
     RpcInfo info = (RpcInfo) msg;
+    try {
+      channelRead(ctx, info);
+    } finally {
+      ReferenceCountUtil.release(info.data());
+    }
+  }
+
+  private void channelRead(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, RpcInfo info)
+      throws Exception {
     RpcCall call = (RpcCall) info.header();
-    
     SocketAddress remoteAddress = info.remoteAddress();
     if (LOG.isTraceEnabled()) {
       LOG.trace(program + " procedure #" + call.getProcedure());
@@ -256,4 +265,4 @@ public int getPort() {
   public int getPortmapUdpTimeoutMillis() {
     return portmapUdpTimeoutMillis;
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcUtil.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcUtil.java
index caba13105c..edf42444b8 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcUtil.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-nfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/oncrpc/RpcUtil.java
@@ -129,15 +129,17 @@ public void channelRead(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Object msg)
       RpcInfo info = null;
       try {
         RpcCall callHeader = RpcCall.read(in);
-        ByteBuf dataBuffer = Unpooled.wrappedBuffer(in.buffer()
-            .slice());
+        ByteBuf dataBuffer = buf.slice(b.position(), b.remaining());
 
         info = new RpcInfo(callHeader, dataBuffer, ctx, ctx.channel(),
             remoteAddress);
       } catch (Exception exc) {
         LOG.info("Malformed RPC request from " + remoteAddress);
       } finally {
-        buf.release();
+        // only release buffer if it is not passed to downstream handler
+        if (info == null) {
+          buf.release();
+        }
       }
 
       if (info != null) {