diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_block.c b/src/qemu/qemu_block.c
index 6e90bae9f2..9bdec92697 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_block.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_block.c
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 #include "qemu_alias.h"
 #include "qemu_security.h"
 #include "qemu_process.h"
+#include "qemu_chardev.h"
 
 #include "storage_source.h"
 #include "viralloc.h"
@@ -1682,7 +1683,13 @@ qemuBlockStorageSourceAttachApply(qemuMonitor *mon,
         return -1;
 
     if (data->chardevDef) {
-        if (qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(mon, data->chardevAlias, data->chardevDef) < 0)
+        g_autoptr(virJSONValue) props = NULL;
+
+        if (qemuChardevGetBackendProps(data->chardevDef, false,
+                                       data->chardevAlias, NULL, &props) < 0)
+            return -1;
+
+        if (qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(mon, &props, NULL) < 0)
             return -1;
 
         data->chardevAdded = true;
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c b/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c
index a58c1446e9..c1070d2562 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_hotplug.c
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
 #include "qemu_block.h"
 #include "qemu_snapshot.h"
 #include "qemu_virtiofs.h"
+#include "qemu_chardev.h"
 #include "domain_audit.h"
 #include "domain_cgroup.h"
 #include "domain_interface.h"
@@ -243,6 +244,9 @@ qemuHotplugChardevAttach(qemuMonitor *mon,
                          const char *alias,
                          virDomainChrSourceDef *def)
 {
+    g_autoptr(virJSONValue) props = NULL;
+    g_autofree char *ptypath = NULL;
+
     switch ((virDomainChrType) def->type) {
     case VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_NULL:
     case VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_VC:
@@ -272,7 +276,23 @@ qemuHotplugChardevAttach(qemuMonitor *mon,
         return -1;
     }
 
-    return qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(mon, alias, def);
+    if (qemuChardevGetBackendProps(def, false, alias, NULL, &props) < 0)
+        return -1;
+
+    if (qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(mon, &props, &ptypath) < 0)
+        return -1;
+
+    if (def->type == VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_PTY) {
+        if (!ptypath) {
+            virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR, "%s",
+                           _("chardev-add reply was missing pty path"));
+            return -1;
+        }
+
+        def->data.file.path = g_steal_pointer(&ptypath);
+    }
+
+    return 0;
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
index 7f65c23748..ada3de474f 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
@@ -3523,14 +3523,12 @@ qemuMonitorGetTPMTypes(qemuMonitor *mon,
 
 int
 qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(qemuMonitor *mon,
-                         const char *chrID,
-                         virDomainChrSourceDef *chr)
+                         virJSONValue **props,
+                         char **ptypath)
 {
-    VIR_DEBUG("chrID=%s chr=%p", chrID, chr);
-
     QEMU_CHECK_MONITOR(mon);
 
-    return qemuMonitorJSONAttachCharDev(mon, chrID, chr);
+    return qemuMonitorJSONAttachCharDev(mon, props, ptypath);
 }
 
 
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.h b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.h
index 57d1b45bf5..2bb64dd53f 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.h
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.h
@@ -1212,8 +1212,8 @@ int qemuMonitorGetTPMTypes(qemuMonitor *mon,
                            char ***tpmtypes);
 
 int qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(qemuMonitor *mon,
-                             const char *chrID,
-                             virDomainChrSourceDef *chr);
+                             virJSONValue **props,
+                             char **ptypath);
 int qemuMonitorDetachCharDev(qemuMonitor *mon,
                              const char *chrID);
 
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
index 2db38c1007..f3a353a13b 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
@@ -6342,7 +6342,7 @@ int qemuMonitorJSONGetTPMTypes(qemuMonitor *mon,
 }
 
 
-static virJSONValue *
+static G_GNUC_UNUSED virJSONValue *
 qemuMonitorJSONAttachCharDevGetProps(const char *chrID,
                                      const virDomainChrSourceDef *chr)
 {
@@ -6571,41 +6571,29 @@ qemuMonitorJSONAttachCharDevGetProps(const char *chrID,
 
 int
 qemuMonitorJSONAttachCharDev(qemuMonitor *mon,
-                             const char *chrID,
-                             virDomainChrSourceDef *chr)
+                             virJSONValue **props,
+                             char **ptypath)
 {
     g_autoptr(virJSONValue) cmd = NULL;
     g_autoptr(virJSONValue) reply = NULL;
-    g_autoptr(virJSONValue) props = NULL;
+    virJSONValue *data;
 
-    if (!(props = qemuMonitorJSONAttachCharDevGetProps(chrID, chr)))
-        return -1;
-
-    if (!(cmd = qemuMonitorJSONMakeCommandInternal("chardev-add", &props)))
+    if (!(cmd = qemuMonitorJSONMakeCommandInternal("chardev-add", props)))
         return -1;
 
     if (qemuMonitorJSONCommand(mon, cmd, &reply) < 0)
         return -1;
 
-    if (chr->type == VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_PTY) {
-        virJSONValue *data;
+    if (!(data = qemuMonitorJSONGetReply(cmd, reply, VIR_JSON_TYPE_OBJECT)))
+        return -1;
 
-        if (!(data = qemuMonitorJSONGetReply(cmd, reply, VIR_JSON_TYPE_OBJECT)))
-            return -1;
-
-        if (!(chr->data.file.path = g_strdup(virJSONValueObjectGetString(data, "pty")))) {
-            virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR, "%s",
-                           _("chardev-add reply was missing pty path"));
-            return -1;
-        }
-    } else {
-        if (qemuMonitorJSONCheckError(cmd, reply) < 0)
-            return -1;
-    }
+    if (ptypath)
+        *ptypath = g_strdup(virJSONValueObjectGetString(data, "pty"));
 
     return 0;
 }
 
+
 int
 qemuMonitorJSONDetachCharDev(qemuMonitor *mon,
                              const char *chrID)
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.h b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.h
index 921dd34ed2..fef81fd911 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.h
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.h
@@ -584,8 +584,8 @@ qemuMonitorJSONGetTPMTypes(qemuMonitor *mon,
 
 int
 qemuMonitorJSONAttachCharDev(qemuMonitor *mon,
-                             const char *chrID,
-                             virDomainChrSourceDef *chr);
+                             virJSONValue **props,
+                             char **ptypath);
 int
 qemuMonitorJSONDetachCharDev(qemuMonitor *mon,
                              const char *chrID);
diff --git a/tests/qemumonitorjsontest.c b/tests/qemumonitorjsontest.c
index 2249787ba7..ab2c445289 100644
--- a/tests/qemumonitorjsontest.c
+++ b/tests/qemumonitorjsontest.c
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 #include "qemu/qemu_monitor_json.h"
 #include "qemu/qemu_qapi.h"
 #include "qemu/qemu_alias.h"
+#include "qemu/qemu_chardev.h"
 #include "virerror.h"
 #include "cpu/cpu.h"
 #include "qemu/qemu_monitor.h"
@@ -553,6 +554,8 @@ testQemuMonitorJSONAttachChardev(const void *opaque)
 {
     const struct qemuMonitorJSONTestAttachChardevData *data = opaque;
     g_autoptr(qemuMonitorTest) test = qemuMonitorTestNewSchema(data->xmlopt, data->schema);
+    g_autoptr(virJSONValue) props = NULL;
+    g_autofree char *ptypath = NULL;
     int rc;
 
     if (!test)
@@ -575,20 +578,20 @@ testQemuMonitorJSONAttachChardev(const void *opaque)
             return -1;
     }
 
-    if ((rc = qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(qemuMonitorTestGetMonitor(test),
-                                       "alias", data->chr)) < 0)
+    if (qemuChardevGetBackendProps(data->chr, false, "alias", NULL, &props) < 0)
+        return -1;
+
+    if ((rc = qemuMonitorAttachCharDev(qemuMonitorTestGetMonitor(test), &props, &ptypath)) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
 
     if (data->chr->type == VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_PTY) {
-        if (STRNEQ_NULLABLE(data->expectPty, data->chr->data.file.path)) {
+        if (STRNEQ_NULLABLE(data->expectPty, ptypath)) {
             virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
                            "expected PTY path: %s got: %s",
                            NULLSTR(data->expectPty),
                            NULLSTR(data->chr->data.file.path));
             rc = -1;
         }
-
-        VIR_FREE(data->chr->data.file.path);
     }
 
  cleanup:
@@ -653,7 +656,9 @@ qemuMonitorJSONTestAttachChardev(virDomainXMLOption *xmlopt,
                                        "'data':{'type':'vdagent'}}}");
 
         chr->type = VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_PTY;
-        CHECK("pty missing path", true,
+        /* Higher level code regards the missing path as error, but we simply
+         * check here what we've parsed */
+        CHECK("pty missing path", false,
               "{'id':'alias','backend':{'type':'pty','data':{}}}");
         if (qemuMonitorJSONTestAttachOneChardev(xmlopt, schema, "pty", chr,
                                                 "{'id':'alias',"