diff --git a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtVMDef.java b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtVMDef.java
index b5723ed66d5..5c8d3377ecc 100644
--- a/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtVMDef.java
+++ b/plugins/hypervisors/kvm/src/com/cloud/hypervisor/kvm/resource/LibvirtVMDef.java
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 // under the License.
 package com.cloud.hypervisor.kvm.resource;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang.StringEscapeUtils;
+
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -1168,7 +1170,7 @@ public class LibvirtVMDef {
             _port = port;
             _autoPort = autoPort;
             _listenAddr = listenAddr;
-            _passwd = passwd;
+            _passwd = StringEscapeUtils.escapeXml(passwd);
             _keyMap = keyMap;
         }