diff --git a/libports/src/lib/libc/file_operations.cc b/libports/src/lib/libc/file_operations.cc
index db12c28f43..e4383c5cb4 100644
--- a/libports/src/lib/libc/file_operations.cc
+++ b/libports/src/lib/libc/file_operations.cc
@@ -205,10 +205,13 @@ static void resolve_symlinks(char const *path, Absolute_path &resolved_path)
 					PDBGV("found symlink: %s", next_iteration_working_path.base());
 					FNAME_FUNC_WRAPPER_GENERIC(res = , readlink,
 					                           next_iteration_working_path.base(),
-					                           symlink_target, sizeof(symlink_target));
+					                           symlink_target, sizeof(symlink_target) - 1);
 					if (res < 1)
 						throw Symlink_resolve_error();
 
+					/* zero terminate target */
+					symlink_target[res] = 0;
+
 					if (symlink_target[0] == '/')
 						/* absolute target */
 						next_iteration_working_path.import(symlink_target, cwd().base());
diff --git a/libports/src/lib/libc_fs/plugin.cc b/libports/src/lib/libc_fs/plugin.cc
index b69dcafa79..0efaf9f337 100644
--- a/libports/src/lib/libc_fs/plugin.cc
+++ b/libports/src/lib/libc_fs/plugin.cc
@@ -659,7 +659,8 @@ class Plugin : public Libc::Plugin
 
 				ssize_t result = read(fd, buf, bufsiz);
 				if (verbose)
-					PDBG("result = %zd, buf = %s", result, buf);
+					PDBG("result = %zd, buf = %s", result, buf[result] ?
+					     "<not zero terminated>" : buf);
 				close(fd);
 
 				return result;