diff --git a/etc/periodic/security/550.ipfwlimit b/etc/periodic/security/550.ipfwlimit
index 4e5d89e2e59d..6c2e1a04014a 100755
--- a/etc/periodic/security/550.ipfwlimit
+++ b/etc/periodic/security/550.ipfwlimit
@@ -42,11 +42,11 @@ rc=0
 
 case "$daily_status_security_ipfwlimit_enable" in
     [Yy][Ee][Ss])
-	TMP=`mktemp -t security`
 	IPFW_LOG_LIMIT=`sysctl -n net.inet.ip.fw.verbose_limit 2> /dev/null`
 	if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
 		exit 0
 	fi
+	TMP=`mktemp -t security`
 	ipfw -a list | grep " log " | \
 	grep '^[[:digit:]]\+[[:space:]]\+[[:digit:]]\+' | \
 	awk -v limit="$IPFW_LOG_LIMIT" \