diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 275f1987c2..1126e6aa6b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ mbed TLS ChangeLog (Sorted per branch, date)
 Bugfix
    * Fix spurious uninitialized variable warning in cmac.c. Fix independently
      contributed by Brian J Murray and David Brown.
+   * Fix overriding and ignoring return values when parsing and writing to
+     a file in pk_sign program. Found by kevlut in #1142.
 
 Changes
    * Support cmake build where Mbed TLS is a subproject. Fix
diff --git a/programs/pkey/pk_sign.c b/programs/pkey/pk_sign.c
index daf08a9055..06ad3ee225 100644
--- a/programs/pkey/pk_sign.c
+++ b/programs/pkey/pk_sign.c
@@ -100,8 +100,7 @@ int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
 
     if( ( ret = mbedtls_pk_parse_keyfile( &pk, argv[1], "" ) ) != 0 )
     {
-        ret = 1;
-        mbedtls_printf( " failed\n  ! Could not open '%s'\n", argv[1] );
+        mbedtls_printf( " failed\n  ! Could not parse '%s'\n", argv[1] );
         goto exit;
     }
 
@@ -141,6 +140,7 @@ int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
 
     if( fwrite( buf, 1, olen, f ) != olen )
     {
+        ret = 1;
         mbedtls_printf( "failed\n  ! fwrite failed\n\n" );
         fclose( f );
         goto exit;