diff --git a/templates/gitlab-ci-gitleaks.yml b/templates/gitlab-ci-gitleaks.yml
index 852006d8254e66483b7f54de34fa5c4124d1ddad..2b78e7208144b0c4f817c6c4ace642d655fd2d95 100644
--- a/templates/gitlab-ci-gitleaks.yml
+++ b/templates/gitlab-ci-gitleaks.yml
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ stages:
         _cond_val=$(echo "$_cond_val" | tr '[:punct:]' '_')
         # retrieve comparison value
         _cmp_val_prefix="scoped__${_target_var}__${_condition}__${_cond_var}__${_test_op}__"
-        _cmp_val=${_scoped_var#$_cmp_val_prefix}
+        _cmp_val=${_scoped_var#"$_cmp_val_prefix"}
         # manage 'ignore case'
         if [[ "$_test_op" == *_ic ]]
         then