diff --git a/src/vlib/linux/pci.c b/src/vlib/linux/pci.c
index d968fe2..5e53915 100644
--- a/src/vlib/linux/pci.c
+++ b/src/vlib/linux/pci.c
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@
 	    break;
 
 	  len = (tag[2] << 8) | tag[1];
-	  vec_alloc (data, len);
+	  vec_validate (data, len - 1);
 
 	  if (read (fd, data, len) != len)
 	    {