diff --git a/lib/puma/control_cli.rb b/lib/puma/control_cli.rb
index 244b9b12..b4f4c123 100644
--- a/lib/puma/control_cli.rb
+++ b/lib/puma/control_cli.rb
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ module Puma
 
         status = YAML.load File.read(@options[:status_path])
 
-        if status.has_key? "config"
+        if status.kind_of?(Hash) && status.has_key?("config")
 
           conf = status["config"]