diff --git a/src/phyp/phyp_driver.c b/src/phyp/phyp_driver.c
index cc9ace3439af0dbda00982092e6a18fc15abe109..8b6fa69d930ac59ae90930deb6848f316c46a5fb 100644
--- a/src/phyp/phyp_driver.c
+++ b/src/phyp/phyp_driver.c
@@ -1720,6 +1720,11 @@ phypAttachDevice(virDomainPtr domain, const char *xml)
     virBuffer buf = VIR_BUFFER_INITIALIZER;
     char *domain_name = NULL;
 
+    if (VIR_ALLOC(def) < 0) {
+        virReportOOMError();
+        goto cleanup;
+    }
+
     domain_name = escape_specialcharacters(domain->name);
 
     if (domain_name == NULL) {