diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio.c b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
index 240759ff0b..dd0ab433b8 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -1703,6 +1703,8 @@ static unsigned int virtqueue_packed_drop_all(VirtQueue *vq)
     VirtIODevice *vdev = vq->vdev;
     VRingPackedDesc desc;
 
+    RCU_READ_LOCK_GUARD();
+
     caches = vring_get_region_caches(vq);
     if (!caches) {
         return 0;