diff --git a/LibOS/shim/src/shim_rtld.c b/LibOS/shim/src/shim_rtld.c
index 27838a312d..85e187bf03 100644
--- a/LibOS/shim/src/shim_rtld.c
+++ b/LibOS/shim/src/shim_rtld.c
@@ -571,6 +571,7 @@ static int load_elf_header(struct shim_handle* file, ElfW(Ehdr)* ehdr) {
     int ret = read_file_fragment(file, ehdr, sizeof(*ehdr), /*offset=*/0);
     if (ret < 0) {
         errstring = "Failed to read ELF header from %s";
+        ret = -ENOEXEC;
         goto err;
     }
 
@@ -578,6 +579,7 @@ static int load_elf_header(struct shim_handle* file, ElfW(Ehdr)* ehdr) {
     if (ret < 0) {
         errstring = "%s is not an ELF executable. Please note that Graphene doesn't support "
                     "executing scripts as executables.";
+        ret = -ENOEXEC;
         goto err;
     }