diff --git a/lib/libalpm/add.c b/lib/libalpm/add.c
index ec49c2a..2d27c42 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/add.c
+++ b/lib/libalpm/add.c
@@ -367,7 +367,12 @@ static int extract_single_file(struct archive *archive,
 	} else {
 		/* do a stat as well, so we can see what symlinks point to */
 		struct stat sbuf;
-		stat(filename, &sbuf);
+		if(stat(filename, &sbuf) != 0) {
+			_alpm_log(PM_LOG_ERROR, _("extract: symlink %s points to %s which seems invalid\n"),
+					entryname, filename);
+			archive_read_data_skip(archive);
+			return(1);
+		}
 
 		if(S_ISDIR(lsbuf.st_mode) && S_ISDIR(entrymode)) {
 			/* case 12: existing dir, ignore it */