diff --git a/lib/tinykvm/linux/system_calls.cpp b/lib/tinykvm/linux/system_calls.cpp
index 1b7babcf..f3ed312d 100644
--- a/lib/tinykvm/linux/system_calls.cpp
+++ b/lib/tinykvm/linux/system_calls.cpp
@@ -2893,10 +2893,10 @@ void Machine::setup_linux_system_calls(bool unsafe_syscalls)
 				path = cpu.machine().memcstring(vpath, PATH_MAX);
 				// Check if the path is a symlink
 				if (cpu.machine().fds().resolve_symlink(path)) {
-					// Copy the resolved path to the guest, respecting guest buffer size.
-					const size_t copied = std::min<size_t>(path.size(), g_size);
-					cpu.machine().copy_to_guest(g_buffer, path.c_str(), copied);
-					regs.rax = copied;
+					// Copy the resolved path to the guest
+					const size_t copy_size = std::min(path.size(), size_t(g_size));
+					cpu.machine().copy_to_guest(g_buffer, path.c_str(), copy_size);
+					regs.rax = copy_size;
 				}
 				else if (UNLIKELY(!cpu.machine().fds().is_readable_path(path))) {
 					// Pretend the path is not a link
@@ -2906,13 +2906,17 @@ void Machine::setup_linux_system_calls(bool unsafe_syscalls)
 					// Translate from vfd when fd != AT_FDCWD
 					if (vfd != AT_FDCWD)
 						fd = cpu.machine().fds().translate(vfd);
-					// Read link target into host buffer, then copy to guest memory.
+					// Path is in allow-list
+					const size_t h_size = std::min(size_t(g_size), size_t(PATH_MAX));
 					char host_buffer[PATH_MAX];
-					const size_t host_size = std::min<size_t>(g_size, sizeof(host_buffer));
-					const ssize_t bytes = readlinkat(fd, path.c_str(), host_buffer, host_size);
-					if (bytes >= 0) {
-						cpu.machine().copy_to_guest(g_buffer, host_buffer, size_t(bytes));
-						regs.rax = bytes;
+					// readlinkat() returns -1 on failure, so storing that in
+					// regs.rax (unsigned) could wrap. Preserves the original intent to store
+					// the length in regs.rax (on success) but avoid a segfault if -1
+					// (which becomes 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF) and then is sent to copy_to_guest() ...
+					const ssize_t host_result = readlinkat(fd, path.c_str(), host_buffer, h_size);
+					if (host_result >= 0) {
+						cpu.machine().copy_to_guest(g_buffer, host_buffer, host_result);
+						regs.rax = host_result;
 					} else {
 						regs.rax = -errno;
 					}
diff --git a/tests/unit/basic.cpp b/tests/unit/basic.cpp
index a79c8154..ac4aeb48 100644
--- a/tests/unit/basic.cpp
+++ b/tests/unit/basic.cpp
@@ -86,3 +86,33 @@ int main() {
 	// and the data matched 'Hello World!'.
 	REQUIRE(output_is_hello_world);
 }
+
+TEST_CASE("readlinkat failure path does not overflow copy", "[Output][Syscall]")
+{
+	const auto binary = build_and_load(R"M(
+#define _GNU_SOURCE
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+int main() {
+	char buf[32];
+	errno = 0;
+	long rc = readlinkat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/self/fd/999999", buf, sizeof(buf));
+	if (rc != -1) return 21;
+	if (errno <= 0) return 22;
+	return 0;
+}
+)M");
+
+	tinykvm::Machine machine{binary, {.max_mem = MAX_MEMORY}};
+	machine.fds().set_open_readable_callback(
+	[&](std::string& path) -> bool {
+		(void)path;
+		return true;
+	});
+	machine.setup_linux({"readlinkat-check"}, env);
+	machine.run(2.0f);
+
+	REQUIRE(machine.return_value() == 0);
+}