diff --git a/apps/wolfsshd/wolfsshd.c b/apps/wolfsshd/wolfsshd.c
index 6a8f5713..6c3ba562 100644
--- a/apps/wolfsshd/wolfsshd.c
+++ b/apps/wolfsshd/wolfsshd.c
@@ -2339,7 +2339,7 @@ static int SHELL_Subsystem(WOLFSSHD_CONNECTION* conn, WOLFSSH* ssh,
         int readPending = 0;
         int wantWrite = 0;
         int rc = 0;
-        DWORD processState;
+        DWORD processState = 0;
         DWORD ava;
         struct timeval t;