diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
index 0ddf81dea6fd27e770ac58045e1243060e6c0bb2..0ffb02ff5234bff99b0c580b480d84c78c32e168 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
@@ -2913,8 +2913,10 @@ static int kvm_ioctl_create_device(struct kvm *kvm,
 	if (ops->init)
 		ops->init(dev);
 
+	kvm_get_kvm(kvm);
 	ret = anon_inode_getfd(ops->name, &kvm_device_fops, dev, O_RDWR | O_CLOEXEC);
 	if (ret < 0) {
+		kvm_put_kvm(kvm);
 		mutex_lock(&kvm->lock);
 		list_del(&dev->vm_node);
 		mutex_unlock(&kvm->lock);
@@ -2922,7 +2924,6 @@ static int kvm_ioctl_create_device(struct kvm *kvm,
 		return ret;
 	}
 
-	kvm_get_kvm(kvm);
 	cd->fd = ret;
 	return 0;
 }