diff --git a/src/util-reference-config.c b/src/util-reference-config.c
index df77a10d9e..fc0ff0f5df 100644
--- a/src/util-reference-config.c
+++ b/src/util-reference-config.c
@@ -179,7 +179,6 @@ static void SCRConfDeInitLocalResources(DetectEngineCtx *de_ctx, FILE *fd)
 {
     if (fd != NULL) {
         fclose(fd);
-        fd = NULL;
     }
 
     return;