diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index 72baf675b..e47cac34f 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -8778,6 +8778,8 @@ log-steps <steps>
   with log-profiles is really interesting to have fine-grained control over
   logs automatically generated by haproxy during transaction processing.
 
+  This setting is only relevant on frontends, it is ignored on backends.
+
   See also : "log-profile"
 
 log-tag <string>
diff --git a/src/proxy.c b/src/proxy.c
index 680e046eb..151ac9fde 100644
--- a/src/proxy.c
+++ b/src/proxy.c
@@ -1794,7 +1794,7 @@ static int proxy_defproxy_cpy(struct proxy *curproxy, const struct proxy *defpro
 {
 	struct logger *tmplogger;
 	char *tmpmsg = NULL;
-	struct eb32_node *node;
+	struct eb32_node *node = NULL;
 
 	/* set default values from the specified default proxy */
 
@@ -2027,7 +2027,8 @@ static int proxy_defproxy_cpy(struct proxy *curproxy, const struct proxy *defpro
 	 * drop the const in order to use EB tree API, please note however
 	 * that the operations performed below should theoretically be read-only
 	 */
-	node = eb32_first((struct eb_root *)&defproxy->conf.log_steps);
+	if (curproxy->cap & PR_CAP_FE) // don't inherit on backends
+		node = eb32_first((struct eb_root *)&defproxy->conf.log_steps);
 	while (node) {
 		struct eb32_node *new_node;