diff --git a/tools/logger/convert.c b/tools/logger/convert.c
index 861cd42cafd2..22ad5439ce71 100644
--- a/tools/logger/convert.c
+++ b/tools/logger/convert.c
@@ -630,8 +630,10 @@ static int logger_read(void)
 				freopen(NULL, "r", global_config->in_fd);
 				continue;
 			}
-
-			return -ferror(global_config->in_fd);
+			log_err("in %s(), fread(..., %s) failed: %s(%d)\n",
+				 __func__, global_config->in_file,
+				strerror(errno), errno);
+			return -errno;
 		}
 
 		/* checking if received trace address is located in
diff --git a/tools/logger/logger.c b/tools/logger/logger.c
index 4ddf9cba7eca..6ee6f4667921 100644
--- a/tools/logger/logger.c
+++ b/tools/logger/logger.c
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ static int append_filter_config(struct convert_config *config, const char *input
 
 	/* filer_config can't be NULL for following steps */
 	if (!old_config)
-		config->filter_config = asprintf("");
+		config->filter_config = asprintf("%s", "");
 
 	config->filter_config = asprintf("%s%s\n", config->filter_config, input);
 	free(old_config);
diff --git a/tools/logger/misc.h b/tools/logger/misc.h
index ec516591b3c1..d1a1b5bdf92d 100644
--- a/tools/logger/misc.h
+++ b/tools/logger/misc.h
@@ -9,8 +9,15 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 
 char *vasprintf(const char *format, va_list args);
+
+#ifdef __GNUC__
+__attribute__((format(printf, 1, 2)))
+#endif
 char *asprintf(const char *format, ...);
 
+#ifdef __GNUC__
+__attribute__((format(printf, 1, 2)))
+#endif
 void log_err(const char *fmt, ...);
 
 /* trim whitespaces from string begin */