diff --git a/drivers/s390/cio/vfio_ccw_cp.c b/drivers/s390/cio/vfio_ccw_cp.c
index 2c7550797ec2..dce92b2a895d 100644
--- a/drivers/s390/cio/vfio_ccw_cp.c
+++ b/drivers/s390/cio/vfio_ccw_cp.c
@@ -715,6 +715,10 @@ void cp_free(struct channel_program *cp)
  * and stores the result to ccwchain list. @cp must have been
  * initialized by a previous call with cp_init(). Otherwise, undefined
  * behavior occurs.
+ * For each chain composing the channel program:
+ * - On entry ch_len holds the count of CCWs to be translated.
+ * - On exit ch_len is adjusted to the count of successfully translated CCWs.
+ * This allows cp_free to find in ch_len the count of CCWs to free in a chain.
  *
  * The S/390 CCW Translation APIS (prefixed by 'cp_') are introduced
  * as helpers to do ccw chain translation inside the kernel. Basically
@@ -749,11 +753,18 @@ int cp_prefetch(struct channel_program *cp)
 		for (idx = 0; idx < len; idx++) {
 			ret = ccwchain_fetch_one(chain, idx, cp);
 			if (ret)
-				return ret;
+				goto out_err;
 		}
 	}
 
 	return 0;
+out_err:
+	/* Only cleanup the chain elements that were actually translated. */
+	chain->ch_len = idx;
+	list_for_each_entry_continue(chain, &cp->ccwchain_list, next) {
+		chain->ch_len = 0;
+	}
+	return ret;
 }
 
 /**