diff --git a/test/config.bats b/test/config.bats
index ba899fd4f91..69d5c48674b 100644
--- a/test/config.bats
+++ b/test/config.bats
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ function teardown() {
 
     # when
     start_crio_no_setup
-    run ${CRIO_STATUS_BINARY_PATH} --socket=${CRIO_SOCKET} config
+    run "${CRIO_STATUS_BINARY_PATH}" --socket="${CRIO_SOCKET}" config
     echo "$output"
 
     # then
@@ -30,15 +30,15 @@ function teardown() {
 
 @test "config dir should fail with invalid option" {
     # given
-    printf "[crio.runtime]\nlog_level = info\n" > "$CRIO_CONFIG"
-    printf "[crio.runtime]\nlog_level = wrong\n" > "$CRIO_CONFIG_DIR"/00-default
+    printf '[crio.runtime]\nlog_level = "info"\n' > "$CRIO_CONFIG"
+    printf '[crio.runtime]\nlog_level = "wrong-level"\n' > "$CRIO_CONFIG_DIR"/00-default
 
     # when
-    "$CRIO_BINARY_PATH" -c "$CRIO_CONFIG" -d "$CRIO_CONFIG_DIR" &> >(tee "$CRIO_LOG") || true
-    RES=$(cat "$CRIO_LOG")
+    run "$CRIO_BINARY_PATH" -c "$CRIO_CONFIG" -d "$CRIO_CONFIG_DIR"
 
     # then
-    [[ "$RES" == *"unable to decode configuration"* ]]
+    [ "$status" -ne 0 ]
+    [[ "$output" == *"not a valid logrus"*"wrong-level"* ]]
 }
 
 @test "replace default runtime should succeed" {