Config file malformed

I have an error when trying to execute an ssis package Cannot load the XML configuration file. The xml configuration file may be malformed . In this file passwords have characters &,{,and '-'. I replaced '&' with &amp still I get the error. In the name of the directory too & is there like C:\\asd&asd\\ . I replaced there too. is there a way I can store the passwords too without using the config file and schedule it as a job through sql server agent? Thanks a lot