diff --git a/src/detect-parse.c b/src/detect-parse.c
index 4663afefbe..7224bc7ddb 100644
--- a/src/detect-parse.c
+++ b/src/detect-parse.c
@@ -694,7 +694,7 @@ static int SigParseOptions(DetectEngineCtx *de_ctx, Signature *s, char *optstr,
 
     /* Call option parsing */
     st = SigTableGet(optname);
-    if (st == NULL) {
+    if (st == NULL || st->Setup == NULL) {
         SCLogError(SC_ERR_RULE_KEYWORD_UNKNOWN, "unknown rule keyword '%s'.", optname);
         goto error;
     }