diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.filter b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.filter
index bc5f250cab91fc70b04ee2d92d290eba546bc231..dcf6391ea2339081d62af325940984843d44df9a 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.filter
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.filter
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ _filter_qemu_io()
 # replace occurrences of QEMU_PROG with "qemu"
 _filter_qemu()
 {
-    sed -e "s#$(basename $QEMU_PROG)#QEMU_PROG#g"
+    sed -e "s#^$(basename $QEMU_PROG):#QEMU_PROG:#"
 }
 
 # make sure this script returns success