diff --git a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
index 544a65078aa955de4a055f5ada21ea3edc669c56..3f90f65d1fbe4f45c119fa5f89817e77e457bc9c 100644
--- a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
@@ -2658,6 +2658,7 @@ virNWFilterDefParseXML(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt)
     }
 
     uuid = virXPathString("string(./uuid)", ctxt);
+    ret->uuid_specified = (uuid != NULL);
     if (uuid == NULL) {
         if (virUUIDGenerate(ret->uuid) < 0) {
             virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
@@ -3178,6 +3179,11 @@ virNWFilterLoadConfig(virNWFilterObjListPtr nwfilters,
         goto error;
     }
 
+    /* We generated a UUID, make it permanent by saving the config to disk */
+    if (!def->uuid_specified &&
+        virNWFilterSaveConfig(configDir, def) < 0)
+        goto error;
+
     if (!(nwfilter = virNWFilterObjAssignDef(nwfilters, def)))
         goto error;
 
diff --git a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.h b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.h
index 823cfa430d00998dcbd3c001c65e2b1d74666fe7..ea3cd5cd74360982cd0225adf324f424f0112311 100644
--- a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.h
+++ b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.h
@@ -536,6 +536,7 @@ typedef virNWFilterDef *virNWFilterDefPtr;
 struct _virNWFilterDef {
     char *name;
     unsigned char uuid[VIR_UUID_BUFLEN];
+    bool uuid_specified;
 
     char *chainsuffix;
     virNWFilterChainPriority chainPriority;