diff --git a/src/vmware/vmware_conf.c b/src/vmware/vmware_conf.c
index 29ca322a0dcea9bf58066c389eec4ec847afe092..b77330313be88b23cea52b74d83b8ac166233cb3 100644
--- a/src/vmware/vmware_conf.c
+++ b/src/vmware/vmware_conf.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2011-2014 Red Hat, Inc.
- * Copyright 2010, diateam (www.diateam.net)
+ * Copyright (C) 2010-2014, diateam (www.diateam.net)
  *
  * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
@@ -241,7 +241,13 @@ vmwareParseVersionStr(int type, const char *verbuf, unsigned long *version)
             return -1;
     }
 
-    if ((tmp = STRSKIP(verbuf, pattern)) == NULL) {
+    if ((tmp = strstr(verbuf, pattern)) == NULL) {
+        virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                       _("cannot find version pattern \"%s\""), pattern);
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+    if ((tmp = STRSKIP(tmp, pattern)) == NULL) {
         virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
                        _("failed to parse %sversion"), pattern);
         return -1;
diff --git a/tests/vmwareverdata/workstation-7.0.0-with-garbage.txt b/tests/vmwareverdata/workstation-7.0.0-with-garbage.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b3c8085291c15f6b1979c896b651452bf3cbe7ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/vmwareverdata/workstation-7.0.0-with-garbage.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+garbage line
+VMware Workstation 7.0.0 build-203739 Release
+garbage line
diff --git a/tests/vmwarevertest.c b/tests/vmwarevertest.c
index 16e48deed0f9e48251c66f250edfe8bfde4fc6f2..24de9e1251d5a260ada6d949e1bbe86321936c1d 100644
--- a/tests/vmwarevertest.c
+++ b/tests/vmwarevertest.c
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ mymain(void)
     } while (0)
 
     DO_TEST("ws", "workstation-7.0.0", 7000000);
+    DO_TEST("ws", "workstation-7.0.0-with-garbage", 7000000);
     DO_TEST("fusion", "fusion-5.0.3", 5000003);
 
     return ret == 0 ? EXIT_SUCCESS : EXIT_FAILURE;