diff --git a/system-test/maxtest/src/testconnections.cc b/system-test/maxtest/src/testconnections.cc
index 59ab13b97..8a0ac3c77 100644
--- a/system-test/maxtest/src/testconnections.cc
+++ b/system-test/maxtest/src/testconnections.cc
@@ -2167,11 +2167,11 @@ bool TestConnections::test_bad_config(int m, const string& config)
     // Set the timeout to prevent hangs with configurations that work
     set_timeout(20);
 
-    return maxscales->ssh_node_f(m,
+    ssh_rc = maxscales->ssh_node_f(m,
                                  true,
                                  "cp /tmp/maxscale.cnf /etc/maxscale.cnf; pkill -9 maxscale; "
-                                 "maxscale -U maxscale -lstdout &> /dev/null && sleep 1 && pkill -9 maxscale")
-           == 0;
+                                 "maxscale -U maxscale -lstdout &> /dev/null && sleep 1 && pkill -9 maxscale");
+    return ((ssh_rc == 0) or (ssh_rc >= 256));
 }
 int TestConnections::call_mdbci(const char* options)
 {