diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc b/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc
index b0c9c50c3..aeee8fe4d 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/fhandler.cc
@@ -335,6 +335,9 @@ fhandler_base::device_access_denied (int flags)
 {
   int mode = 0;
 
+  if (flags & O_PATH)
+    return false;
+
   if (flags & O_RDWR)
     mode |= R_OK | W_OK;
   if (flags & (O_WRONLY | O_APPEND))