diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 598e8e1..f18ed0d 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -939,8 +939,10 @@ cat > $TMPC << EOF
 int main(void) { return 0; }
 EOF
 for flag in $gcc_flags; do
-    if compile_prog "-Werror $QEMU_CFLAGS" "-Werror $flag" ; then
-	QEMU_CFLAGS="$QEMU_CFLAGS $flag"
+    if compile_prog "-Werror $flag $QEMU_CFLAGS" "" ; then
+        # Note: flag must be prepended so that they could be overriden by
+        # user flags (such as -fno-stack-protector)
+	QEMU_CFLAGS="$flag $QEMU_CFLAGS"
     fi
 done