diff --git a/block/rbd.c b/block/rbd.c
index 498322b..fbdb131 100644
--- a/block/rbd.c
+++ b/block/rbd.c
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 #include "crypto/secret.h"
 #include "qemu/cutils.h"
 #include "qapi/qmp/qstring.h"
+#include "qapi/qmp/qjson.h"
 
 /*
  * When specifying the image filename use:
@@ -135,18 +136,16 @@ static void qemu_rbd_parse_filename(const char *filename, QDict *options,
                                     Error **errp)
 {
     const char *start;
-    char *p, *buf, *keypairs;
+    char *p, *buf;
+    QList *keypairs = NULL;
     char *found_str;
-    size_t max_keypair_size;
 
     if (!strstart(filename, "rbd:", &start)) {
         error_setg(errp, "File name must start with 'rbd:'");
         return;
     }
 
-    max_keypair_size = strlen(start) + 1;
     buf = g_strdup(start);
-    keypairs = g_malloc0(max_keypair_size);
     p = buf;
 
     found_str = qemu_rbd_next_tok(p, '/', &p);
@@ -194,33 +193,30 @@ static void qemu_rbd_parse_filename(const char *filename, QDict *options,
         } else if (!strcmp(name, "id")) {
             qdict_put(options, "user" , qstring_from_str(value));
         } else {
-            /* FIXME: This is pretty ugly, and not the right way to do this.
-             *        These should be contained in a structure, and then
-             *        passed explicitly as individual key/value pairs to
-             *        rados.  Consider this legacy code that needs to be
-             *        updated. */
-            char *tmp = g_malloc0(max_keypair_size);
-            /* only use a delimiter if it is not the first keypair found */
-            /* These are sets of unknown key/value pairs we'll pass along
-             * to ceph */
-            if (keypairs[0]) {
-                snprintf(tmp, max_keypair_size, ":%s=%s", name, value);
-                pstrcat(keypairs, max_keypair_size, tmp);
-            } else {
-                snprintf(keypairs, max_keypair_size, "%s=%s", name, value);
+            /*
+             * We pass these internally to qemu_rbd_set_keypairs(), so
+             * we can get away with the simpler list of [ "key1",
+             * "value1", "key2", "value2" ] rather than a raw dict
+             * { "key1": "value1", "key2": "value2" } where we can't
+             * guarantee order, or even a more correct but complex
+             * [ { "key1": "value1" }, { "key2": "value2" } ]
+             */
+            if (!keypairs) {
+                keypairs = qlist_new();
             }
-            g_free(tmp);
+            qlist_append(keypairs, qstring_from_str(name));
+            qlist_append(keypairs, qstring_from_str(value));
         }
     }
 
-    if (keypairs[0]) {
-        qdict_put(options, "=keyvalue-pairs", qstring_from_str(keypairs));
+    if (keypairs) {
+        qdict_put(options, "=keyvalue-pairs",
+                  qobject_to_json(QOBJECT(keypairs)));
     }
 
-
 done:
     g_free(buf);
-    g_free(keypairs);
+    QDECREF(keypairs);
     return;
 }
 
@@ -244,36 +240,41 @@ static int qemu_rbd_set_auth(rados_t cluster, const char *secretid,
     return 0;
 }
 
-static int qemu_rbd_set_keypairs(rados_t cluster, const char *keypairs,
+static int qemu_rbd_set_keypairs(rados_t cluster, const char *keypairs_json,
                                  Error **errp)
 {
-    char *p, *buf;
-    char *name;
-    char *value;
+    QList *keypairs;
+    QString *name;
+    QString *value;
+    const char *key;
+    size_t remaining;
     int ret = 0;
 
-    buf = g_strdup(keypairs);
-    p = buf;
+    if (!keypairs_json) {
+        return ret;
+    }
+    keypairs = qobject_to_qlist(qobject_from_json(keypairs_json,
+                                                  &error_abort));
+    remaining = qlist_size(keypairs) / 2;
+    assert(remaining);
 
-    while (p) {
-        name = qemu_rbd_next_tok(p, '=', &p);
-        if (!p) {
-            error_setg(errp, "conf option %s has no value", name);
-            ret = -EINVAL;
-            break;
-        }
+    while (remaining--) {
+        name = qobject_to_qstring(qlist_pop(keypairs));
+        value = qobject_to_qstring(qlist_pop(keypairs));
+        assert(name && value);
+        key = qstring_get_str(name);
 
-        value = qemu_rbd_next_tok(p, ':', &p);
-
-        ret = rados_conf_set(cluster, name, value);
+        ret = rados_conf_set(cluster, key, qstring_get_str(value));
+        QDECREF(name);
+        QDECREF(value);
         if (ret < 0) {
-            error_setg_errno(errp, -ret, "invalid conf option %s", name);
+            error_setg_errno(errp, -ret, "invalid conf option %s", key);
             ret = -EINVAL;
             break;
         }
     }
 
-    g_free(buf);
+    QDECREF(keypairs);
     return ret;
 }
 
