diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/5348-fix-vbox-deeply-nested-hostvars.yml b/changelogs/fragments/5348-fix-vbox-deeply-nested-hostvars.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f8084d6345
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/5348-fix-vbox-deeply-nested-hostvars.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - virtualbox inventory plugin - skip parsing values with keys that have both a value and nested data. Skip parsing values that are nested more than two keys deep (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/5332, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/5348).
diff --git a/plugins/inventory/virtualbox.py b/plugins/inventory/virtualbox.py
index 829fc7b971..c926d8b449 100644
--- a/plugins/inventory/virtualbox.py
+++ b/plugins/inventory/virtualbox.py
@@ -186,10 +186,13 @@ class InventoryModule(BaseInventoryPlugin, Constructable, Cacheable):
             else:
                 # found vars, accumulate in hostvars for clean inventory set
                 pref_k = 'vbox_' + k.strip().replace(' ', '_')
-                if k.startswith(' '):
-                    if prevkey not in hostvars[current_host]:
+                leading_spaces = len(k) - len(k.lstrip(' '))
+                if 0 < leading_spaces <= 2:
+                    if prevkey not in hostvars[current_host] or not isinstance(hostvars[current_host][prevkey], dict):
                         hostvars[current_host][prevkey] = {}
                     hostvars[current_host][prevkey][pref_k] = v
+                elif leading_spaces > 2:
+                    continue
                 else:
                     if v != '':
                         hostvars[current_host][pref_k] = v