diff --git a/src/detect-pcre.c b/src/detect-pcre.c
index 6f89ba8463..f20b216247 100644
--- a/src/detect-pcre.c
+++ b/src/detect-pcre.c
@@ -377,8 +377,11 @@ static DetectPcreData *DetectPcreParse (DetectEngineCtx *de_ctx,
             cut_capture = fcap - regexstr;
         else if (pcap && !fcap)
             cut_capture = pcap - regexstr;
-        else
+        else {
+            BUG_ON(pcap == NULL); // added to assist cppcheck
+            BUG_ON(fcap == NULL);
             cut_capture = MIN((pcap - regexstr), (fcap - regexstr));
+        }
 
         SCLogDebug("cut_capture %d", cut_capture);