diff --git a/docs/changelog/141.bugfix.rst b/docs/changelog/141.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a0b3f7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changelog/141.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Discard malformed interpreter cache entries and query the interpreter again, including entries with missing,
+non-string or unusable ``system_executable`` paths - by :user:`darrenhuai`.
diff --git a/src/python_discovery/_cached_py_info.py b/src/python_discovery/_cached_py_info.py
index e28aa0c..f2f8266 100644
--- a/src/python_discovery/_cached_py_info.py
+++ b/src/python_discovery/_cached_py_info.py
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ def _read_cache_entry(
 ) -> PythonInfo | _UnsupportedInterpreterError | None:
     if not py_info_store.exists() or (data := py_info_store.read()) is None:
         return None
-    if all(data.get(key) == value for key, value in entry_meta.items()):
+    if isinstance(data, dict) and all(data.get(key) == value for key, value in entry_meta.items()):
         if isinstance(unsupported := data.get("unsupported"), str):
             return _UnsupportedInterpreterError(unsupported)
         if isinstance(content := data.get("content"), dict):
@@ -152,10 +152,10 @@ def _load_cached_py_info(
 ) -> PythonInfo | None:
     try:
         py_info = cls.from_dict(content.copy())
-    except (KeyError, TypeError):
-        py_info_store.remove()
-        return None
-    if (sys_exe := py_info.system_executable) is not None and not Path(sys_exe).exists():
+        stale = (sys_exe := py_info.system_executable) is not None and not Path(sys_exe).is_file()
+    except (AttributeError, KeyError, OSError, TypeError):
+        stale = True
+    if stale:
         py_info_store.remove()
         return None
     return py_info
diff --git a/tests/test_cache_recovery.py b/tests/test_cache_recovery.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d332d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_cache_recovery.py
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import json
+import sys
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
+import pytest
+
+from python_discovery import DiskCache, PythonInfo
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from pathlib import Path
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "payload",
+    [
+        pytest.param("[]", id="list"),
+        pytest.param('"python"', id="string"),
+        pytest.param("3", id="number"),
+        pytest.param("true", id="bool"),
+        pytest.param("null", id="null"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_from_exe_recovers_non_object_cache(cached_interpreter: tuple[DiskCache, Path, dict], payload: str) -> None:
+    cache, cache_file, expected = cached_interpreter
+    cache_file.write_text(payload, encoding="utf-8")
+    result = PythonInfo.from_exe(sys.executable, cache, ignore_cache=True, resolve_to_host=False)
+    assert result is not None
+    assert (json.loads(result.to_json()), json.loads(cache_file.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))) == (
+        expected["content"],
+        expected,
+    )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "payload",
+    [
+        pytest.param(None, id="missing"),
+        pytest.param("5", id="int"),
+        pytest.param('["python"]', id="list"),
+        pytest.param("{}", id="dict"),
+        pytest.param("true", id="bool"),
+        pytest.param('""', id="empty"),
+        pytest.param('"."', id="directory"),
+        pytest.param('"missing-python"', id="nonexistent"),
+        pytest.param('"python\\u0000"', id="nul"),
+        pytest.param(json.dumps("a" * 1024), id="path-too-long"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_from_exe_recovers_invalid_system_executable(
+    cached_interpreter: tuple[DiskCache, Path, dict], payload: str | None
+) -> None:
+    cache, cache_file, expected = cached_interpreter
+    data = json.loads(cache_file.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    if payload is None:
+        del data["content"]["system_executable"]
+    else:
+        data["content"]["system_executable"] = json.loads(payload)
+    cache_file.write_text(json.dumps(data), encoding="utf-8")
+    result = PythonInfo.from_exe(sys.executable, cache, ignore_cache=True, resolve_to_host=False)
+    assert result is not None
+    assert (json.loads(result.to_json()), json.loads(cache_file.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))) == (
+        expected["content"],
+        expected,
+    )
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def cached_interpreter(tmp_path: Path) -> tuple[DiskCache, Path, dict]:
+    cache = DiskCache(tmp_path)
+    assert PythonInfo.from_exe(sys.executable, cache, ignore_cache=True, resolve_to_host=False) is not None
+    cache_file = next(tmp_path.rglob("*.json"))
+    return cache, cache_file, json.loads(cache_file.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))