diff --git a/hw/virtio-pci.c b/hw/virtio-pci.c
index f90296d672..71f4fb5dc6 100644
--- a/hw/virtio-pci.c
+++ b/hw/virtio-pci.c
@@ -857,6 +857,19 @@ static int virtio_rng_init_pci(PCIDevice *pci_dev)
     VirtIOPCIProxy *proxy = DO_UPCAST(VirtIOPCIProxy, pci_dev, pci_dev);
     VirtIODevice *vdev;
 
+    if (proxy->rng.rng == NULL) {
+        proxy->rng.default_backend = RNG_RANDOM(object_new(TYPE_RNG_RANDOM));
+
+        object_property_add_child(OBJECT(pci_dev),
+                                  "default-backend",
+                                  OBJECT(proxy->rng.default_backend),
+                                  NULL);
+
+        object_property_set_link(OBJECT(pci_dev),
+                                 OBJECT(proxy->rng.default_backend),
+                                 "rng", NULL);
+    }
+
     vdev = virtio_rng_init(&pci_dev->qdev, &proxy->rng);
     if (!vdev) {
         return -1;
diff --git a/hw/virtio-rng.h b/hw/virtio-rng.h
index 7324d0ab57..f42d748eba 100644
--- a/hw/virtio-rng.h
+++ b/hw/virtio-rng.h
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #define _QEMU_VIRTIO_RNG_H
 
 #include "qemu/rng.h"
+#include "qemu/rng-random.h"
 
 /* The Virtio ID for the virtio rng device */
 #define VIRTIO_ID_RNG    4
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ struct VirtIORNGConf {
     RngBackend *rng;
     uint64_t max_bytes;
     uint32_t period_ms;
+    RndRandom *default_backend;
 };
 
 #endif