diff --git a/lib/utils/process.c b/lib/utils/process.c
index ec51fda8..2c584a91 100644
--- a/lib/utils/process.c
+++ b/lib/utils/process.c
@@ -30,6 +30,16 @@
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <poll.h>
 
+static bool
+qtcSignalHandlerSet(int sig)
+{
+    struct sigaction oact;
+    QTC_RET_IF_FAIL(sigaction(sig, NULL, &oact) == 0, false);
+    void *handler = ((oact.sa_flags & SA_SIGINFO) ? (void*)oact.sa_handler :
+                     (void*)oact.sa_sigaction);
+    return qtcNoneOf(handler, SIG_DFL, SIG_IGN);
+}
+
 QTC_EXPORT bool
 qtcForkBackground(QtcCallback cb, void *data, QtcCallback fail_cb)
 {
@@ -38,11 +48,10 @@ qtcForkBackground(QtcCallback cb, void *data, QtcCallback fail_cb)
     // a signal handler registered for SIGCHLD and the child process exit
     // inside waitpid()/wait(), it will be run after the process state is
     // cleared and would therefore block if it call wait() (or waitpid(-1))
-    // and if there are other child processes. As a workaround we use vfork()
-    // to block the parent until direct child exit so that waitpid() will always
-    // be called after the process exit and would never hang because of signal
-    // handler. See (the RATIONALE section of) wait(3P) for more detail.
-    pid_t child = vfork();
+    // and if there are other child processes. As a workaround we only call
+    // waitpid() if the main program did not set up any signal handlers for
+    // SIGCHLD. See (the RATIONALE section of) wait(3P) for more detail.
+    pid_t child = fork();
     if (child < 0) {
         return false;
     } else if (child == 0) {
@@ -60,6 +69,14 @@ qtcForkBackground(QtcCallback cb, void *data, QtcCallback fail_cb)
         return true;
     } else {
         /* parent */
+        if (qtcSignalHandlerSet(SIGCHLD)) {
+            // If we create a child process, the signal handler will recieve
+            // the signal anyway (and there is no way to only block SIGCHLD
+            // only for our child process). Since the signal handler may
+            // hang and should already take care of getting rid of
+            // zombie processes, we do not call waitpid in this case....
+            return true;
+        }
         // If SIGCHLD is ignored, waitpid will return -1 with errno
         // set to ECHILD, treat this as success (good enough for our purpose
         // and not likely to fail anyway...)
diff --git a/test/test-process.c b/test/test-process.c
index d2253fe0..b177ad5f 100644
--- a/test/test-process.c
+++ b/test/test-process.c
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 #include <assert.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <time.h>
+#include <signal.h>
+#include <sys/wait.h>
 
 int pipe_fds[2];
 long num;
@@ -34,6 +36,13 @@ forkCb(void *data)
     write(pipe_fds[1], &num, sizeof(num));
 }
 
+static void
+sigchld_handler(int signum)
+{
+    QTC_UNUSED(signum);
+    wait(NULL);
+}
+
 int
 main()
 {
@@ -41,9 +50,22 @@ main()
     assert(res == 0);
     srandom(time(NULL));
     num = random();
+
+    struct sigaction sa;
+    memset(&sa, 0, sizeof(struct sigaction));
+    sa.sa_handler = sigchld_handler;
+    sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
+    sa.sa_flags = SA_RESTART;
+    sigaction(SIGCHLD, &sa, NULL);
+
+    if (fork() == 0) {
+        sleep(4);
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    alarm(1);
     bool fork_res = qtcForkBackground(forkCb, NULL);
     assert(fork_res);
-    alarm(1);
     long num_sent = 0;
     ssize_t read_res = read(pipe_fds[0], &num_sent, sizeof(num_sent));
     assert(read_res == sizeof(num_sent));