diff --git a/lib/libdevdctl/event.cc b/lib/libdevdctl/event.cc
index 36c9b725fed1..76ef1896975a 100644
--- a/lib/libdevdctl/event.cc
+++ b/lib/libdevdctl/event.cc
@@ -277,6 +277,7 @@ Event::GetTimestamp() const
 bool
 Event::DevPath(std::string &path) const
 {
+	char buf[SPECNAMELEN + 1];
 	string devName;
 
 	if (!DevName(devName))
@@ -288,7 +289,11 @@ Event::DevPath(std::string &path) const
 		return (false);
 
 	/* Normalize the device name in case the DEVFS event is for a link. */
-	devName = fdevname(devFd);
+	if (fdevname_r(devFd, buf, sizeof(buf)) == NULL) {
+		close(devFd);
+		return (false);
+	}
+	devName = buf;
 	path = _PATH_DEV + devName;
 
 	close(devFd);