diff --git a/src/uu/chmod/src/chmod.rs b/src/uu/chmod/src/chmod.rs
index 19c4eced2..c2b51ae5e 100644
--- a/src/uu/chmod/src/chmod.rs
+++ b/src/uu/chmod/src/chmod.rs
@@ -234,9 +234,12 @@ impl Chmoder {
 
     fn walk_dir(&self, file_path: &Path) -> UResult<()> {
         let mut r = self.chmod_file(file_path);
-        if file_path.is_dir() {
-            for dir_entry in fs::read_dir(file_path)? {
-                r = self.walk_dir(dir_entry?.path().as_path());
+        if !is_symlink(file_path) && file_path.is_dir() {
+            for dir_entry in file_path.read_dir()? {
+                let path = dir_entry?.path();
+                if !is_symlink(&path) {
+                    r = self.walk_dir(path.as_path());
+                }
             }
         }
         r
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_chmod.rs b/tests/by-util/test_chmod.rs
index 6cbe7e887..373ad97ce 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_chmod.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_chmod.rs
@@ -473,8 +473,8 @@ fn test_chmod_symlink_non_existing_file_recursive() {
 
     let expected_stdout = &format!(
         // spell-checker:disable-next-line
-        "mode of '{}' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)\nneither symbolic link '{}/{}' nor referent has been changed",
-        test_directory, test_directory, test_symlink
+        "mode of '{}' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)",
+        test_directory
     );
 
     // '-v': this should succeed without stderr