diff --git a/src/basic/fs-util.c b/src/basic/fs-util.c
index ee38e0266a..9ba9268d77 100644
--- a/src/basic/fs-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/fs-util.c
@@ -116,7 +116,11 @@ int rename_noreplace(int olddirfd, const char *oldpath, int newdirfd, const char
 int readlinkat_malloc(int fd, const char *p, char **ret) {
         size_t l = PATH_MAX;
 
-        assert(p);
+        assert(fd >= 0 || fd == AT_FDCWD);
+
+        if (fd < 0 && isempty(p))
+                return -EISDIR; /* In this case, the fd points to the current working directory, and is
+                                 * definitely not a symlink. Let's return earlier. */
 
         for (;;) {
                 _cleanup_free_ char *c = NULL;
@@ -126,7 +130,7 @@ int readlinkat_malloc(int fd, const char *p, char **ret) {
                 if (!c)
                         return -ENOMEM;
 
-                n = readlinkat(fd, p, c, l);
+                n = readlinkat(fd, strempty(p), c, l);
                 if (n < 0)
                         return -errno;
 
diff --git a/src/test/test-fs-util.c b/src/test/test-fs-util.c
index 5de1eea0d4..ef335b43ae 100644
--- a/src/test/test-fs-util.c
+++ b/src/test/test-fs-util.c
@@ -758,4 +758,39 @@ static int intro(void) {
         return EXIT_SUCCESS;
 }
 
+TEST(readlinkat_malloc) {
+        _cleanup_(rm_rf_physical_and_freep) char *t = NULL;
+        _cleanup_close_ int tfd = -EBADF, fd = -EBADF;
+        _cleanup_free_ char *p = NULL, *q = NULL;
+        const char *expect = "hgoehogefoobar";
+
+        tfd = mkdtemp_open(NULL, O_PATH, &t);
+        assert_se(tfd >= 0);
+
+        assert_se(symlinkat(expect, tfd, "linkname") >= 0);
+
+        assert_se(readlinkat_malloc(tfd, "linkname", &p) >= 0);
+        assert_se(streq(p, expect));
+        p = mfree(p);
+
+        fd = openat(tfd, "linkname", O_PATH | O_NOFOLLOW | O_CLOEXEC);
+        assert_se(fd >= 0);
+        assert_se(readlinkat_malloc(fd, NULL, &p) >= 0);
+        assert_se(streq(p, expect));
+        p = mfree(p);
+        assert_se(readlinkat_malloc(fd, "", &p) >= 0);
+        assert_se(streq(p, expect));
+        p = mfree(p);
+        fd = safe_close(fd);
+
+        assert_se(q = path_join(t, "linkname"));
+        assert_se(readlinkat_malloc(AT_FDCWD, q, &p) >= 0);
+        assert_se(streq(p, expect));
+        p = mfree(p);
+        assert_se(readlinkat_malloc(INT_MAX, q, &p) >= 0);
+        assert_se(streq(p, expect));
+        p = mfree(p);
+        q = mfree(q);
+}
+
 DEFINE_TEST_MAIN_WITH_INTRO(LOG_INFO, intro);