diff --git a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
index a3901d367e..fe4363c6d8 100644
--- a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
@@ -2369,9 +2369,7 @@ virNWFilterRuleParse(xmlNodePtr node)
                     if (virNWFilterRuleDetailsParse(cur,
                                                     ret,
                                                     virAttr[i].att) < 0) {
-                        /* we ignore malformed rules
-                           goto err_exit;
-                        */
+                        goto err_exit;
                     }
                     break;
                 }
@@ -2572,11 +2570,13 @@ virNWFilterDefParseXML(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt) {
             if (VIR_ALLOC(entry) < 0)
                 goto cleanup;
 
-            /* ignore malformed rule and include elements */
-            if (xmlStrEqual(curr->name, BAD_CAST "rule"))
-                entry->rule = virNWFilterRuleParse(curr);
-            else if (xmlStrEqual(curr->name, BAD_CAST "filterref"))
-                entry->include = virNWFilterIncludeParse(curr);
+            if (xmlStrEqual(curr->name, BAD_CAST "rule")) {
+                if (!(entry->rule = virNWFilterRuleParse(curr)))
+                    goto cleanup;
+            } else if (xmlStrEqual(curr->name, BAD_CAST "filterref")) {
+                if (!(entry->include = virNWFilterIncludeParse(curr)))
+                    goto cleanup;
+            }
 
             if (entry->rule || entry->include) {
                 if (VIR_REALLOC_N(ret->filterEntries, ret->nentries+1) < 0) {
diff --git a/tests/nwfilterxml2xmltest.c b/tests/nwfilterxml2xmltest.c
index 5476284d73..84e61da1b1 100644
--- a/tests/nwfilterxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/nwfilterxml2xmltest.c
@@ -36,15 +36,12 @@ testCompareXMLToXMLFiles(const char *inxml, const char *outxml,
 
     virResetLastError();
 
-    if (!(dev = virNWFilterDefParseString(NULL, inXmlData)))
+    if (!(dev = virNWFilterDefParseString(NULL, inXmlData))) {
+        if (expect_error) {
+            virResetLastError();
+            goto done;
+        }
         goto fail;
-
-    if (!!virGetLastError() != expect_error)
-        goto fail;
-
-    if (expect_error) {
-        /* need to suppress the errors */
-        virResetLastError();
     }
 
     if (!(actual = virNWFilterDefFormat(dev)))
@@ -55,6 +52,7 @@ testCompareXMLToXMLFiles(const char *inxml, const char *outxml,
         goto fail;
     }
 
+ done:
     ret = 0;
 
  fail: