diff --git a/tools/target_dem_fuzzer.c b/tools/target_dem_fuzzer.c
index 6ee793a28b..687989ccc8 100644
--- a/tools/target_dem_fuzzer.c
+++ b/tools/target_dem_fuzzer.c
@@ -172,6 +172,10 @@ int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *data, size_t size) {
         avfmt->interrupt_callback.callback = interrupt_cb;
     }
 
+    // HLS uses a loop with sleep, we thus must breakout or we timeout
+    if (!strcmp(fmt->name, "hls"))
+        interrupt_counter &= 31;
+
     if (!io_buffer_size || size / io_buffer_size > maxblocks)
         io_buffer_size = size;