diff --git a/client/virt/kvm_vm.py b/client/virt/kvm_vm.py
index ffa55c1..a3aa45f 100644
--- a/client/virt/kvm_vm.py
+++ b/client/virt/kvm_vm.py
@@ -10,6 +10,25 @@ from autotest_lib.client.bin import utils
 import virt_utils, virt_vm, virt_test_setup, kvm_monitor, aexpect


+class QemuSegFaultError(virt_vm.VMError):
+    def __init__(self, crash_message):
+        virt_vm.VMError.__init__(self, crash_message)
+        self.crash_message = crash_message
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return ("Qemu crashed: %s" % self.crash_message)
+
+
+def log_qemu_output(line):
+    """
+    Verifies a line of output from qemu, if (core dumped) is found,
+    raise a QemuSegFaultError.
+    """
+    logging.info(line)
+    if "(core dumped)" in line:
+        raise QemuSegFaultError(line)
+
+
 class VM(virt_vm.BaseVM):
     """
     This class handles all basic VM operations.
@@ -786,7 +805,7 @@ class VM(virt_vm.BaseVM):

             logging.info("Running qemu command:\n%s", qemu_command)
             self.process = aexpect.run_bg(qemu_command, None,
-                                          logging.info, "[qemu output] ")
+                                          log_qemu_output, "[qemu output] ")
             for tapfd in self.tapfds:
                 try:
                     os.close(tapfd)