diff --git a/criu/shmem.c b/criu/shmem.c
index a183460a7..cf35873a7 100644
--- a/criu/shmem.c
+++ b/criu/shmem.c
@@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ int collect_sysv_shmem(unsigned long shmid, unsigned long size)
 	 * Tasks will not modify this object, so don't
 	 * shmalloc() as we do it for anon shared mem
 	 */
-	si = malloc(sizeof(*si));
+	si = xmalloc(sizeof(*si));
 	if (!si)
 		return -1;