diff --git a/src/detect.c b/src/detect.c
index b8b984e2a8..a4dc9c896f 100644
--- a/src/detect.c
+++ b/src/detect.c
@@ -3055,6 +3055,9 @@ void SigTableRegisterTests(void) {
 #include "flow-util.h"
 
 static const char *dummy_conf_string =
+    "%YAML 1.1\n"
+    "---\n"
+    "\n"
     "default-log-dir: /var/log/suricata\n"
     "\n"
     "logging:\n"
diff --git a/src/stream-tcp.c b/src/stream-tcp.c
index 720d8906cc..4f97fade9b 100644
--- a/src/stream-tcp.c
+++ b/src/stream-tcp.c
@@ -3857,6 +3857,9 @@ end:
 
 /* Dummy conf string to setup the OS policy for unit testing */
 static const char *dummy_conf_string =
+    "%YAML 1.1\n"
+    "---\n"
+    "\n"
     "default-log-dir: /var/log/eidps\n"
     "\n"
     "logging:\n"
@@ -3877,6 +3880,9 @@ static const char *dummy_conf_string =
     "\n";
 /* Dummy conf string to setup the OS policy for unit testing */
 static const char *dummy_conf_string1 =
+    "%YAML 1.1\n"
+    "---\n"
+    "\n"
     "default-log-dir: /var/log/eidps\n"
     "\n"
     "logging:\n"
diff --git a/src/util-rule-vars.c b/src/util-rule-vars.c
index c3251e432b..23ce4d24ab 100644
--- a/src/util-rule-vars.c
+++ b/src/util-rule-vars.c
@@ -91,6 +91,9 @@ char *SCRuleVarsGetConfVar(const char *conf_var_name,
 /**********************************Unittests***********************************/
 
 static const char *dummy_conf_string =
+    "%YAML 1.1\n"
+    "---\n"
+    "\n"
     "default-log-dir: /var/log/suricata\n"
     "\n"
     "logging:\n"