diff --git a/src/boot/efi/fuzz-bcd.c b/src/boot/efi/fuzz-bcd.c
index 6d76533e8f..297b71f60c 100644
--- a/src/boot/efi/fuzz-bcd.c
+++ b/src/boot/efi/fuzz-bcd.c
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 
 #include "alloc-util.h"
 #include "bcd.h"
-#include "fd-util.h"
 #include "fuzz.h"
 #include "utf8.h"
 
@@ -13,14 +12,11 @@ int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *data, size_t size) {
         if (outside_size_range(size, 0, 100*1024))
                 return 0;
 
-        if (!getenv("SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL"))
-                log_set_max_level(LOG_CRIT);
-
         p = memdup(data, size);
         assert_se(p);
 
         char16_t *title = get_bcd_title(p, size);
-        if (title)
-                (void) char16_strlen(title);
+        /* If we get something, it must be NUL-terminated, but an empty string is still valid! */
+        DO_NOT_OPTIMIZE(title && char16_strlen(title));
         return 0;
 }
diff --git a/src/fuzz/fuzz.h b/src/fuzz/fuzz.h
index 04c438edaf..a7d3a89fe2 100644
--- a/src/fuzz/fuzz.h
+++ b/src/fuzz/fuzz.h
@@ -27,3 +27,6 @@ static inline bool outside_size_range(size_t size, size_t lower, size_t upper) {
                 return FUZZ_USE_SIZE_LIMIT;
         return false;
 }
+
+/* Force value to not be optimized away. */
+#define DO_NOT_OPTIMIZE(value) ({ asm volatile("" : : "g"(value) : "memory"); })