diff --git a/src/tools/tidy/src/known_bug.rs b/src/tools/tidy/src/known_bug.rs
index 182a81c6ec9..a8771654144 100644
--- a/src/tools/tidy/src/known_bug.rs
+++ b/src/tools/tidy/src/known_bug.rs
@@ -6,8 +6,22 @@ use crate::walk::*;
 
 pub fn check(filepath: &Path, bad: &mut bool) {
     walk(filepath, |path, _is_dir| filter_not_rust(path), &mut |entry, contents| {
-        let file = entry.path();
-        if !contents.lines().any(|line| line.starts_with("//@ known-bug: ")) {
+        let file: &Path = entry.path();
+
+        // files in "auxiliary" do not need to crash by themselves
+        let test_path_segments =
+            file.iter().map(|s| s.to_string_lossy().into()).collect::<Vec<String>>();
+        let test_path_segments_str =
+            test_path_segments.iter().map(|s| s.as_str()).collect::<Vec<&str>>();
+
+        if !matches!(test_path_segments_str[..], [
+            ..,
+            "tests",
+            "crashes",
+            "auxiliary",
+            _aux_file_rs
+        ]) && !contents.lines().any(|line| line.starts_with("//@ known-bug: "))
+        {
             tidy_error!(
                 bad,
                 "{} crash/ice test does not have a \"//@ known-bug: \" directive",