diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/cmd/audit.rb b/Library/Homebrew/cmd/audit.rb
index b15e8361ef3705ff5ec2d82080dd609f95f6b6c6..8b2de4ba6df172af4e63ff8bcbbaf258ec4982d8 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/cmd/audit.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/cmd/audit.rb
@@ -552,7 +552,7 @@ class FormulaAuditor
     end
 
     if @strict
-      if line =~ /system (["'][^"' ]*\s[^"' ]*["'])/
+      if line =~ /system (["'][^"' ]*(?:\s[^"' ]*)+["'])/
         bad_system = $1
         good_system = bad_system.gsub(" ", "\", \"")
         problem "Use `system #{good_system}` instead of `system #{bad_system}` "