diff --git a/src/tests/fuzz/fuzz_confyamlloadstring.c b/src/tests/fuzz/fuzz_confyamlloadstring.c
index 413b2f786c..265bde2854 100644
--- a/src/tests/fuzz/fuzz_confyamlloadstring.c
+++ b/src/tests/fuzz/fuzz_confyamlloadstring.c
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
 #include "conf-yaml-loader.h"
 #include "nallocinc.c"
 
+SC_ATOMIC_EXTERN(unsigned int, engine_stage);
+
 int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *data, size_t size);
 
 static int initialized = 0;
@@ -22,6 +24,7 @@ int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *data, size_t size)
         //global init
         InitGlobal();
         SCRunmodeSet(RUNMODE_UNITTEST);
+        SC_ATOMIC_SET(engine_stage, SURICATA_RUNTIME);
         nalloc_init(NULL);
         // do not restrict nalloc
         initialized = 1;