diff --git a/ci-automation/tapfile_helper_lib.sh b/ci-automation/tapfile_helper_lib.sh
index 0cd7f3efa4..35fc12be17 100644
--- a/ci-automation/tapfile_helper_lib.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/tapfile_helper_lib.sh
@@ -117,7 +117,8 @@ function tap_ingest_tapfile() {
             fi
         else
             test_name="$(echo "${line}" | sed 's/^[^-]* - //')"
-            local result_string="$(echo "${line}" | sed 's/ - .*//')"
+            local result_string
+            result_string="$(echo "${line}" | sed 's/ - .*//')"
             result=0
             if [ "${result_string}" = "ok" ] ; then
                 result=1
@@ -186,8 +187,10 @@ function tap_generate_report() {
 
     local dbname="${TAPFILE_HELPER_DBNAME}"
 
-    local count="$(__sqlite3_wrapper "${dbname}" 'SELECT count(name) FROM test_case;')"
-    local vendors="$(__sqlite3_wrapper "${dbname}" 'SELECT name FROM vendor;' | tr '\n' ' ')"
+    local count
+    count="$(__sqlite3_wrapper "${dbname}" 'SELECT count(name) FROM test_case;')"
+    local vendors
+    vendors="$(__sqlite3_wrapper "${dbname}" 'SELECT name FROM vendor;' | tr '\n' ' ')"
 
     echo "1..$((count+1))"
     echo "ok - Version: ${version}, Architecture: ${arch}" 
@@ -243,8 +246,10 @@ function tap_generate_report() {
                             END { if (t) print t r ")"; }'
         }
 
-        local succeded="$(list_runs 1)"
-        local failed="$(list_runs 0)"
+        local succeded
+        succeded="$(list_runs 1)"
+        local failed
+        failed="$(list_runs 0)"
 
         echo "${verdict} - ${test_name}"
         echo "   ---"
diff --git a/ci-automation/test.sh b/ci-automation/test.sh
index 95197dc736..84e06860ba 100644
--- a/ci-automation/test.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/test.sh
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
 #   2. "./ci-cleanup.sh" with commands to clean up temporary build resources,
 #        to be run after this step finishes / when this step is aborted.
 
-set -eu
+set -euo pipefail
 
 function test_run() {
     local arch="$1" ; shift
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ function test_run() {
 
     source sdk_container/.repo/manifests/version.txt
     local vernum="${FLATCAR_VERSION}"
-    local docker_vernum="$(vernum_to_docker_image_version "${vernum}")"
+    local docker_vernum
+   docker_vernum="$(vernum_to_docker_image_version "${vernum}")"
 
     local packages="flatcar-packages-${arch}"
     local packages_image="${packages}:${docker_vernum}"
@@ -97,7 +98,8 @@ function test_run() {
                 "${tests_dir}/${tapfile}" "${image}" "${retry}" \
                 "${tests_dir}/failed-run-${retry}.txt"
 
-        local failed_tests="$(cat "${tests_dir}/failed-run-${retry}.txt")"
+        local failed_tests
+        failed_tests="$(cat "${tests_dir}/failed-run-${retry}.txt")"
         if [ -z "$failed_tests" ] ; then
             echo "########### All tests succeeded. ###########"
             success=true
diff --git a/ci-automation/test_update_reruns.sh b/ci-automation/test_update_reruns.sh
index e559158f31..8a3eb078a7 100755
--- a/ci-automation/test_update_reruns.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/test_update_reruns.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 # test.sh uses this to determine which tests need to re-run.
 # This script is run within the SDK container.
 
-set -eu
+set -euo pipefail
 
 tapfile="$1"
 image="$2"
diff --git a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
index 3f2dc95cff..852e386899 100644
--- a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-#
+set -euo pipefail
 # Copyright (c) 2021 The Flatcar Maintainers.
 # Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
 # found in the LICENSE file.