diff --git a/cli-runopts.c b/cli-runopts.c
index fad9428d129901cb91f83aac3b47c6f58eb07a7d..d70a4e19d16ac24b1f49b0565dd2113438d179bd 100644
--- a/cli-runopts.c
+++ b/cli-runopts.c
@@ -888,5 +888,5 @@ static void add_extendedopt(const char* origstr) {
 	}
 #endif
 
-	dropbear_exit("Bad configuration option '%s'", origstr);
+	dropbear_log(LOG_WARNING, "Ignoring unknown configuration option '%s'", origstr);
 }