diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index e1b09dae338..fb63b9fc68e 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -392,11 +392,11 @@ if test "x$CXXFLAGS_overridden" = "xno"; then
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wall],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wall"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wextra],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wextra"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wgnu],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wgnu"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
-  AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wformat],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wformat"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
+  dnl some compilers will ignore -Wformat-security without -Wformat, so just combine the two here.
+  AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wformat -Wformat-security],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wformat -Wformat-security"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wvla],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wvla"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wshadow-field],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wshadow-field"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wswitch],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wswitch"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
-  AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wformat-security],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wformat-security"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wthread-safety],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wthread-safety"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wrange-loop-analysis],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wrange-loop-analysis"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])
   AX_CHECK_COMPILE_FLAG([-Wredundant-decls],[WARN_CXXFLAGS="$WARN_CXXFLAGS -Wredundant-decls"],,[[$CXXFLAG_WERROR]])