diff --git a/src/conf/storage_conf.c b/src/conf/storage_conf.c
index f0ea41dfda8c37a9ec68ca1d07b7c1dcb4469288..cc3d3d90e74112c9f04eabfefbe39756bdc7caa5 100644
--- a/src/conf/storage_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/storage_conf.c
@@ -834,6 +834,12 @@ virStoragePoolDefParseXML(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt)
     }
 
     type = virXPathString("string(./@type)", ctxt);
+    if (type == NULL) {
+        virReportError(VIR_ERR_XML_ERROR, "%s",
+                       _("storage pool missing type attribute"));
+        goto error;
+    }
+
     if ((ret->type = virStoragePoolTypeFromString(type)) < 0) {
         virReportError(VIR_ERR_XML_ERROR,
                        _("unknown storage pool type %s"), type);
@@ -956,8 +962,6 @@ virStoragePoolDefParseXML(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt)
             goto error;
     }
 
-    return ret;
-
 cleanup:
     VIR_FREE(uuid);
     VIR_FREE(type);