diff --git a/gns3server/compute/virtualbox/virtualbox_vm.py b/gns3server/compute/virtualbox/virtualbox_vm.py
index ecd7ef2c..6f13b8d6 100644
--- a/gns3server/compute/virtualbox/virtualbox_vm.py
+++ b/gns3server/compute/virtualbox/virtualbox_vm.py
@@ -209,7 +209,12 @@ class VirtualBoxVM(BaseNode):
         Fix the VM uuid in the case of linked clone
         """
         if os.path.exists(self._linked_vbox_file()):
-            tree = ET.parse(self._linked_vbox_file())
+            try:
+                tree = ET.parse(self._linked_vbox_file())
+            except ET.ParseError:
+                raise VirtualBoxError("Cannot modify VirtualBox linked nodes file. "
+                                      "File {} is corrupted.".format(self._linked_vbox_file()))
+
             machine = tree.getroot().find("{http://www.virtualbox.org/}Machine")
             if machine is not None and machine.get("uuid") != "{" + self.id + "}":
 
diff --git a/tests/compute/virtualbox/test_virtualbox_vm.py b/tests/compute/virtualbox/test_virtualbox_vm.py
index ef617fe4..b2300280 100644
--- a/tests/compute/virtualbox/test_virtualbox_vm.py
+++ b/tests/compute/virtualbox/test_virtualbox_vm.py
@@ -113,3 +113,15 @@ def test_patch_vm_uuid(vm):
     with open(vm._linked_vbox_file()) as f:
         c = f.read()
         assert "{" + vm.id + "}" in c
+
+
+def test_patch_vm_uuid_with_corrupted_file(vm):
+    xml = """<?xml version="1.0"?>
+    <VirtualBox>
+    """
+    os.makedirs(os.path.join(vm.working_dir, vm._vmname), exist_ok=True)
+    with open(vm._linked_vbox_file(), "w+") as f:
+        f.write(xml)
+    vm._linked_clone = True
+    with pytest.raises(VirtualBoxError):
+        vm._patch_vm_uuid()
\ No newline at end of file