diff --git a/hw/9pfs/9p-local.c b/hw/9pfs/9p-local.c
index 8fb79e44b5..a6dd77d7b8 100644
--- a/hw/9pfs/9p-local.c
+++ b/hw/9pfs/9p-local.c
@@ -959,13 +959,20 @@ static int local_chown(FsContext *fs_ctx, V9fsPath *fs_path, FsCred *credp)
 static int local_utimensat(FsContext *s, V9fsPath *fs_path,
                            const struct timespec *buf)
 {
-    char *buffer;
-    int ret;
-    char *path = fs_path->data;
+    char *dirpath = g_path_get_dirname(fs_path->data);
+    char *name = g_path_get_basename(fs_path->data);
+    int dirfd, ret = -1;
 
-    buffer = rpath(s, path);
-    ret = qemu_utimens(buffer, buf);
-    g_free(buffer);
+    dirfd = local_opendir_nofollow(s, dirpath);
+    if (dirfd == -1) {
+        goto out;
+    }
+
+    ret = utimensat(dirfd, name, buf, AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW);
+    close_preserve_errno(dirfd);
+out:
+    g_free(dirpath);
+    g_free(name);
     return ret;
 }