diff --git a/MalwareMultiScan.Backends/Backends/Abstracts/AbstractLocalProcessScanBackend.cs b/MalwareMultiScan.Backends/Backends/Abstracts/AbstractLocalProcessScanBackend.cs
index 11e2f98..f46606b 100644
--- a/MalwareMultiScan.Backends/Backends/Abstracts/AbstractLocalProcessScanBackend.cs
+++ b/MalwareMultiScan.Backends/Backends/Abstracts/AbstractLocalProcessScanBackend.cs
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ namespace MalwareMultiScan.Backends.Backends.Abstracts
         protected virtual Regex MatchRegex { get; }
         protected virtual string BackendPath { get; }
         protected virtual bool ParseStdErr { get; }
+        protected virtual bool ThrowOnNonZeroExitCode { get; } = true;
 
         protected virtual string GetBackendArguments(string path)
         {
@@ -55,12 +56,15 @@ namespace MalwareMultiScan.Backends.Backends.Abstracts
             process.WaitForExit();
 
             _logger.LogInformation($"Process has exited with code {process.ExitCode}");
-
+            
             var standardOutput = await process.StandardOutput.ReadToEndAsync();
             var standardError = await process.StandardError.ReadToEndAsync();
 
             _logger.LogDebug($"Process standard output: {standardOutput}");
             _logger.LogDebug($"Process standard error: {standardError}");
+            
+            if (ThrowOnNonZeroExitCode && process.ExitCode != 0)
+                throw new ApplicationException($"Process has terminated with an exit code {process.ExitCode}");
 
             return MatchRegex
                 .Matches(ParseStdErr ? standardError : standardOutput)