diff --git a/.cirrus.yml b/.cirrus.yml
index e07ff9796ed..e0ab1536a09 100644
--- a/.cirrus.yml
+++ b/.cirrus.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ env:  # Global defaults
   PACKAGE_MANAGER_INSTALL: "apt-get update && apt-get install -y"
   MAKEJOBS: "-j10"
   TEST_RUNNER_PORT_MIN: "14000"  # Must be larger than 12321, which is used for the http cache. See https://cirrus-ci.org/guide/writing-tasks/#http-cache
+  CI_FAILFAST_TEST_LEAVE_DANGLING: "1"  # Cirrus CI does not care about dangling process and setting this variable avoids killing the CI script itself on error
   CCACHE_SIZE: "200M"
   CCACHE_DIR: "/tmp/ccache_dir"
   CCACHE_NOHASHDIR: "1"  # Debug info might contain a stale path if the build dir changes, but this is fine
diff --git a/test/functional/test_runner.py b/test/functional/test_runner.py
index dd4a612c9e7..306c8e7ff05 100755
--- a/test/functional/test_runner.py
+++ b/test/functional/test_runner.py
@@ -586,11 +586,12 @@ def run_tests(*, test_list, src_dir, build_dir, tmpdir, jobs=1, enable_coverage=
     # Clean up dangling processes if any. This may only happen with --failfast option.
     # Killing the process group will also terminate the current process but that is
     # not an issue
-    if len(job_queue.jobs):
+    if not os.getenv("CI_FAILFAST_TEST_LEAVE_DANGLING") and len(job_queue.jobs):
         os.killpg(os.getpgid(0), signal.SIGKILL)
 
     sys.exit(not all_passed)
 
+
 def print_results(test_results, max_len_name, runtime):
     results = "\n" + BOLD[1] + "%s | %s | %s\n\n" % ("TEST".ljust(max_len_name), "STATUS   ", "DURATION") + BOLD[0]