diff --git a/src/core/kmod-setup.c b/src/core/kmod-setup.c
index efbdf31688..c5117b47ee 100644
--- a/src/core/kmod-setup.c
+++ b/src/core/kmod-setup.c
@@ -60,16 +60,19 @@ int kmod_setup(void) {
                 bool (*condition_fn)(void);
         } kmod_table[] = {
                 /* auto-loading on use doesn't work before udev is up */
-                { "autofs4", "/sys/class/misc/autofs", true, NULL                 },
+                { "autofs4",   "/sys/class/misc/autofs",    true,  NULL                },
 
                 /* early configure of ::1 on the loopback device */
-                { "ipv6",    "/sys/module/ipv6",       true, NULL                 },
+                { "ipv6",      "/sys/module/ipv6",          true,  NULL                },
 
                 /* this should never be a module */
-                { "unix",    "/proc/net/unix",         true, NULL                 },
+                { "unix",      "/proc/net/unix",            true,  NULL                },
 
                 /* IPC is needed before we bring up any other services */
-                { "kdbus",   "/sys/fs/kdbus",          false, cmdline_check_kdbus },
+                { "kdbus",     "/sys/fs/kdbus",             false, cmdline_check_kdbus },
+
+                /* netfilter is needed by networkd, nspawn among others, and cannot be autoloaded */
+                { "ip_tables", "/proc/net/ip_tables_names", false, NULL                },
         };
         struct kmod_ctx *ctx = NULL;
         unsigned int i;