diff --git a/src/detect.h b/src/detect.h
index 241aaa961a..fa12f0a112 100644
--- a/src/detect.h
+++ b/src/detect.h
@@ -553,7 +553,7 @@ typedef struct DetectTagHostCtx_ {
 /** \brief main detection engine ctx */
 typedef struct DetectEngineCtx_ {
     uint8_t flags;
-    uint8_t failure_fatal;
+    int failure_fatal;
 
     Signature *sig_list;
     uint32_t sig_cnt;