diff --git a/src/conf/cpu_conf.c b/src/conf/cpu_conf.c
index cf91930365885901a61a3c26752b657a8f2945c5..c51ac4e75261ce4a606a7b91f22311e67fd3fc47 100644
--- a/src/conf/cpu_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/cpu_conf.c
@@ -115,6 +115,13 @@ virCPUDefParseXML(const xmlNodePtr node,
     int n;
     unsigned int i;
 
+    if (!xmlStrEqual(node->name, BAD_CAST "cpu")) {
+        virCPUReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                          "%s",
+                          _("XML does not contain expected 'cpu' element"));
+        return NULL;
+    }
+
     if (VIR_ALLOC(def) < 0) {
         virReportOOMError();
         return NULL;