diff --git a/tests/common/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/common/CMakeLists.txt
index 38e2a85818..e24d74d7d4 100644
--- a/tests/common/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/common/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ add_oscap_test_executable(test_oscap_util
 
 add_oscap_test("test_oscap_util.sh")
 
+add_oscap_test_executable(test_verbose_error "test_verbose_error.c")
+add_oscap_ctest("common/test_verbose_error" COMMAND test_verbose_error)
+
 if(NOT WIN32)
 	add_oscap_test_executable(test_tmpdir "test_tmpdir.c")
 	add_oscap_test("test_tmpdir.sh")
diff --git a/tests/common/test_verbose_error.c b/tests/common/test_verbose_error.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0457019c02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/common/test_verbose_error.c
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
+#include <config.h>
+#endif
+
+#include <stdbool.h>
+#include <stddef.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <string.h>
+
+#include "common/public/oscap.h"
+#include "common/public/oscap_debug.h"
+#include "common/public/oscap_error.h"
+
+int main(void)
+{
+	oscap_init();
+	oscap_clearerr();
+	/* An empty filename cannot be opened, regardless of filesystem permissions. */
+	bool success = oscap_set_verbose("INFO", "");
+	const char *description = oscap_err_desc();
+	int ret = 0;
+	if (success || !oscap_err() || oscap_err_family() != OSCAP_EFAMILY_OSCAP ||
+		description == NULL || strstr(description, "Failed to open file") == NULL) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "Log initialization failure did not populate the library error queue.\n");
+		ret = 1;
+	}
+	oscap_cleanup();
+	return ret;
+}
diff --git a/tests/utils/test_verbose_options.sh b/tests/utils/test_verbose_options.sh
index a15d14c00f..124a0893da 100755
--- a/tests/utils/test_verbose_options.sh
+++ b/tests/utils/test_verbose_options.sh
@@ -32,4 +32,11 @@ grep -q "I: oscap: Identified document type: Benchmark" "$verblofile"
 $OSCAP xccdf eval  --verbose INFO --profile default --results "$results" --verbose-log-file "$verblofile" "$xccdf" >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
 grep -q "I: oscap: Identified document type: Benchmark" "$verblofile"
 
+# A regular file cannot be used as the parent directory of the log file.
+status=0
+$OSCAP info --verbose INFO --verbose-log-file "$verblofile/log" "$xccdf" >"$results" 2>"$stderr" || status=$?
+test "$status" -eq 1
+test ! -s "$results"
+grep -Fq "Failed to open file $verblofile/log:" "$stderr"
+
 rm -f "$results" "$stderr" "$verblofile"
diff --git a/utils/oscap-tool.c b/utils/oscap-tool.c
index 4afcec69bf..e9bab1fc8f 100644
--- a/utils/oscap-tool.c
+++ b/utils/oscap-tool.c
@@ -364,9 +364,12 @@ int oscap_module_process(struct oscap_module *module, int argc, char **argv)
 
         if (module->func) {
 			if (!check_verbose_options(&action)) {
+				ret = OSCAP_ERROR;
 				goto cleanup;
 			}
 			if (!oscap_set_verbose(action.verbosity_level, action.f_verbose_log)) {
+				oscap_print_error();
+				ret = OSCAP_ERROR;
 				goto cleanup;
 			}
             oscap_print_env_vars();