diff --git a/tests/short-first-segment.sh b/tests/short-first-segment.sh
index 263266b6..ea0e3310 100755
--- a/tests/short-first-segment.sh
+++ b/tests/short-first-segment.sh
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@ cd "${SCRATCH}"
 
 ldd "${EXEC_NAME}"
 
-${PATCHELF} --set-rpath $(tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 4096) --output modified1 "${EXEC_NAME}"
-${PATCHELF} --add-rpath $(tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 4096) modified1
+${PATCHELF} --set-rpath "$(tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 4096)" --output modified1 "${EXEC_NAME}"
+${PATCHELF} --add-rpath "$(tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 4096)" modified1
 
 ldd modified1