diff --git a/src/detect-engine-analyzer.c b/src/detect-engine-analyzer.c
index 188424d229..f5ec80e83c 100644
--- a/src/detect-engine-analyzer.c
+++ b/src/detect-engine-analyzer.c
@@ -781,6 +781,10 @@ static void DumpMatches(RuleAnalyzer *ctx, SCJsonBuilder *js, const SigMatchData
                     AnalyzerNote(ctx,
                             (char *)"'/B' (rawbytes) option is a no-op and is silently ignored");
                 }
+                if (cd->flags & DETECT_PCRE_HAS_UNICODE_CLUSTER) {
+                    AnalyzerNote(ctx, (char *)"pcre with \\X (Unicode extended grapheme cluster) "
+                                              "may be slow");
+                }
                 break;
             }
             case DETECT_BYTEJUMP: {
diff --git a/src/detect-pcre.c b/src/detect-pcre.c
index 4a97d43a88..cafcb37e58 100644
--- a/src/detect-pcre.c
+++ b/src/detect-pcre.c
@@ -366,6 +366,11 @@ static int DetectPcreSetList(int list, int set)
     return set;
 }
 
+static bool DetectPcreHasUnicodeCluster(const char *re)
+{
+    return strstr(re, "\\X") != NULL;
+}
+
 static int DetectPcreHasUpperCase(const char *re)
 {
     size_t len = strlen(re);
@@ -709,21 +714,15 @@ static DetectPcreData *DetectPcreParse (DetectEngineCtx *de_ctx,
     if (capture_names == NULL || strlen(capture_names) == 0)
         opts |= PCRE2_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE;
 
-#ifdef FUZZING_BUILD_MODE_UNSAFE_FOR_PRODUCTION
     // forbid use of \X Unicode extended grapheme cluster as slow
-    bool escape = false;
-    for (size_t i = 0; i < strlen(re); i++) {
-        if (escape) {
-            if (re[i] == 'X') {
-                goto error;
-            }
-            escape = false;
-        } else if (re[i] == '\\') {
-            escape = true;
-        }
+    if (DetectPcreHasUnicodeCluster(re)) {
+#ifdef FUZZING_BUILD_MODE_UNSAFE_FOR_PRODUCTION
+        goto error;
+#else
+        pd->flags |= DETECT_PCRE_HAS_UNICODE_CLUSTER;
+#endif
     }
 
-#endif
     pd->parse_regex.regex =
             pcre2_compile((PCRE2_SPTR8)re, PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED, opts, &en, &eo2, NULL);
     if (pd->parse_regex.regex == NULL && en == 115) { // reference to nonexistent subpattern
diff --git a/src/detect-pcre.h b/src/detect-pcre.h
index dc20f4194c..740fd3453b 100644
--- a/src/detect-pcre.h
+++ b/src/detect-pcre.h
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 
 #define DETECT_PCRE_RELATIVE_NEXT       0x00040
 #define DETECT_PCRE_NEGATE              0x00080
+#define DETECT_PCRE_HAS_UNICODE_CLUSTER 0x00100
 
 #define DETECT_PCRE_CAPTURE_MAX         8