diff --git a/src/openvpn/networking_sitnl.c b/src/openvpn/networking_sitnl.c
index c08f2e98..8d7c7f56 100644
--- a/src/openvpn/networking_sitnl.c
+++ b/src/openvpn/networking_sitnl.c
@@ -1356,7 +1356,15 @@ net_iface_new(openvpn_net_ctx_t *ctx, const char *iface, const char *type,
     {
         dco_context_t *dco = arg;
         struct rtattr *data = SITNL_NEST(&req.n, sizeof(req), IFLA_INFO_DATA);
-        SITNL_ADDATTR(&req.n, sizeof(req), IFLA_OVPN_MODE, &dco->ifmode,
+
+        /* the netlink format is uint8_t for this and using something
+         * other than uint8_t here (enum underlying type is undefined but
+         * commonly int) causes the values to be 0 when passed
+         * on big endian arch as we only take the (biggest endian) byte
+         * directly at the address
+         */
+        uint8_t ifmode = (uint8_t)dco->ifmode;
+        SITNL_ADDATTR(&req.n, sizeof(req), IFLA_OVPN_MODE, &ifmode,
                       sizeof(uint8_t));
         SITNL_NEST_END(&req.n, data);
     }