diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/gcc/gcc-sanitizers.inc b/meta/recipes-devtools/gcc/gcc-sanitizers.inc
index e5e84526fa..8b1d1c94bf 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-devtools/gcc/gcc-sanitizers.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/gcc/gcc-sanitizers.inc
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ INHIBIT_DEFAULT_DEPS = "1"
 ALLOW_EMPTY_${PN} = "1"
 DEPENDS = "gcc-runtime virtual/${TARGET_PREFIX}gcc"
 
+# used to fix ../../../../../../../../../work-shared/gcc-8.3.0-r0/gcc-8.3.0/libsanitizer/libbacktrace/../../libbacktrace/elf.c:772:21: error: 'st.st_mode' may be used uninitialized in this function [-Werror=maybe-uninitialized]
+DEBUG_OPTIMIZATION_append = " -Wno-error"
+
 BBCLASSEXTEND = "nativesdk"
 
 PACKAGES = "${PN} ${PN}-dbg"