diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 638548b1..810a5a3d 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -8,7 +8,10 @@ if ENV["GEMFILE_MOD"]
   puts "GEMFILE_MOD: #{ENV["GEMFILE_MOD"]}"
   instance_eval(ENV["GEMFILE_MOD"])
 else
-  gem "ohai", git: "https://github.com/chef/ohai", branch: "main"
+  # changed to 18-stable given that it's the newest compatible with
+  # the latest knife (and knife is embedded in chef so can't just point at
+  # GitHub)
+  gem "ohai", git: "https://github.com/chef/ohai", branch: "18-stable"
   gem "knife"
 end
 
diff --git a/lib/chef/knife/wsman_test.rb b/lib/chef/knife/wsman_test.rb
index 23eb08dc..3932cb8d 100644
--- a/lib/chef/knife/wsman_test.rb
+++ b/lib/chef/knife/wsman_test.rb
@@ -98,12 +98,16 @@ def parse_response(node, response)
         if response.nil? || response.status_code != 200
           output_object.error_message = "No valid WSMan endoint listening at #{node.endpoint}."
         else
-          doc = REXML::Document.new(response.body)
-          output_object.protocol_version = search_xpath(doc, "//wsmid:ProtocolVersion")
-          output_object.product_version  = search_xpath(doc, "//wsmid:ProductVersion")
-          output_object.product_vendor = search_xpath(doc, "//wsmid:ProductVendor")
-          if output_object.protocol_version.to_s.strip.length == 0
-            output_object.error_message = "Endpoint #{node.endpoint} on #{node.host} does not appear to be a WSMAN endpoint. Response body was #{response.body}"
+          begin
+            doc = REXML::Document.new(response.body)
+            output_object.protocol_version = search_xpath(doc, "//wsmid:ProtocolVersion")
+            output_object.product_version  = search_xpath(doc, "//wsmid:ProductVersion")
+            output_object.product_vendor = search_xpath(doc, "//wsmid:ProductVendor")
+            if output_object.protocol_version.to_s.strip.length == 0
+              output_object.error_message = "Endpoint #{node.endpoint} on #{node.host} does not appear to be a WSMAN endpoint. Response body was #{response.body}"
+            end
+          rescue REXML::ParseException => e
+            output_object.error_message = e.message
           end
         end
         output_object