diff --git a/elf/dl-load.c b/elf/dl-load.c
index 39c63ff1b3..2aa487b49a 100644
--- a/elf/dl-load.c
+++ b/elf/dl-load.c
@@ -1859,7 +1859,7 @@ open_path (const char *name, size_t namelen, int mode,
 		     test whether there is any directory at all.  */
 		  struct __stat64_t64 st;
 
-		  buf[buflen - namelen - 1] = '\0';
+		  buf[buflen - namelen] = '\0';
 
 		  if (__stat64_time64 (buf, &st) != 0
 		      || ! S_ISDIR (st.st_mode))