diff --git a/src/core/desktopfilereader.cpp b/src/core/desktopfilereader.cpp
index 31f1fe3..6a3cbca 100644
--- a/src/core/desktopfilereader.cpp
+++ b/src/core/desktopfilereader.cpp
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ namespace linuxdeploy {
                 return d->path;
             }
 
-            DesktopFile::section_t DesktopFileReader::operator[](const std::string& name) {
+            DesktopFile::section_t DesktopFileReader::operator[](const std::string& name) const {
                 auto it = d->sections.find(name);
 
                 // the map would lazy-initialize a new entry in case the section doesn't exist
diff --git a/src/core/desktopfilereader.h b/src/core/desktopfilereader.h
index 7e3704c..221f698 100644
--- a/src/core/desktopfilereader.h
+++ b/src/core/desktopfilereader.h
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ namespace linuxdeploy {
 
                 // get a specific section from the parsed data
                 // throws std::range_error if section does not exist
-                DesktopFile::section_t operator[](const std::string& name);
+                DesktopFile::section_t operator[](const std::string& name) const;
             };
         }
     }