diff --git a/src/nm-core-utils.c b/src/nm-core-utils.c
index 97866256d8..99fa8c9523 100644
--- a/src/nm-core-utils.c
+++ b/src/nm-core-utils.c
@@ -1114,13 +1114,17 @@ nm_utils_read_link_absolute (const char *link_file, GError **error)
 		return ln;
 
 	dirname = g_path_get_dirname (link_file);
-	if (!g_path_is_absolute (link_file)) {
-		gs_free char *dirname_rel = dirname;
+	if (!g_path_is_absolute (dirname)) {
 		gs_free char *current_dir = g_get_current_dir ();
 
-		dirname = g_build_filename (current_dir, dirname_rel, NULL);
-	}
-	ln_abs = g_build_filename (dirname, ln, NULL);
+		/* @link_file argument was not an absolute path in the first place.
+		 * That actually may be a bug, because the CWD is not well defined
+		 * in most cases. Anyway, apparently we were able to load the file
+		 * even from a relative path. So, when making the link absolute, we
+		 * also need to prepend the CWD. */
+		ln_abs = g_build_filename (current_dir, dirname, ln, NULL);
+	} else
+		ln_abs = g_build_filename (dirname, ln, NULL);
 	g_free (dirname);
 	g_free (ln);
 	return ln_abs;