diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio.c b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
index e37641a9c952428883c45224f777a7d3fa341541..6dfc92f230825742694248d20a6bb9bd34452a58 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -592,24 +592,12 @@ static void virtqueue_undo_map_desc(unsigned int out_num, unsigned int in_num,
 }
 
 static void virtqueue_map_iovec(struct iovec *sg, hwaddr *addr,
-                                unsigned int *num_sg, unsigned int max_size,
+                                unsigned int *num_sg,
                                 int is_write)
 {
     unsigned int i;
     hwaddr len;
 
-    /* Note: this function MUST validate input, some callers
-     * are passing in num_sg values received over the network.
-     */
-    /* TODO: teach all callers that this can fail, and return failure instead
-     * of asserting here.
-     * When we do, we might be able to re-enable NDEBUG below.
-     */
-#ifdef NDEBUG
-#error building with NDEBUG is not supported
-#endif
-    assert(*num_sg <= max_size);
-
     for (i = 0; i < *num_sg; i++) {
         len = sg[i].iov_len;
         sg[i].iov_base = cpu_physical_memory_map(addr[i], &len, is_write);
@@ -626,10 +614,8 @@ static void virtqueue_map_iovec(struct iovec *sg, hwaddr *addr,
 
 void virtqueue_map(VirtQueueElement *elem)
 {
-    virtqueue_map_iovec(elem->in_sg, elem->in_addr, &elem->in_num,
-                        VIRTQUEUE_MAX_SIZE, 1);
-    virtqueue_map_iovec(elem->out_sg, elem->out_addr, &elem->out_num,
-                        VIRTQUEUE_MAX_SIZE, 0);
+    virtqueue_map_iovec(elem->in_sg, elem->in_addr, &elem->in_num, 1);
+    virtqueue_map_iovec(elem->out_sg, elem->out_addr, &elem->out_num, 0);
 }
 
 static void *virtqueue_alloc_element(size_t sz, unsigned out_num, unsigned in_num)
@@ -790,6 +776,16 @@ void *qemu_get_virtqueue_element(QEMUFile *f, size_t sz)
 
     qemu_get_buffer(f, (uint8_t *)&data, sizeof(VirtQueueElementOld));
 
+    /* TODO: teach all callers that this can fail, and return failure instead
+     * of asserting here.
+     * When we do, we might be able to re-enable NDEBUG below.
+     */
+#ifdef NDEBUG
+#error building with NDEBUG is not supported
+#endif
+    assert(ARRAY_SIZE(data.in_addr) >= data.in_num);
+    assert(ARRAY_SIZE(data.out_addr) >= data.out_num);
+
     elem = virtqueue_alloc_element(sz, data.out_num, data.in_num);
     elem->index = data.index;