diff --git a/hw/virtio/vhost.c b/hw/virtio/vhost.c
index 01ebe12f28e..aff98a0ede5 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/vhost.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/vhost.c
@@ -1514,7 +1514,7 @@ void vhost_dev_set_config_notifier(struct vhost_dev *hdev,
 
 void vhost_dev_free_inflight(struct vhost_inflight *inflight)
 {
-    if (inflight->addr) {
+    if (inflight && inflight->addr) {
         qemu_memfd_free(inflight->addr, inflight->size, inflight->fd);
         inflight->addr = NULL;
         inflight->fd = -1;