diff --git a/src/node.cc b/src/node.cc
index 2891c18bb9aa9a..7b25bb6e48d75d 100644
--- a/src/node.cc
+++ b/src/node.cc
@@ -608,11 +608,19 @@ static void PlatformInit(ProcessInitializationFlags::Flags flags) {
     for (auto& s : stdio) {
       const int fd = &s - stdio;
       if (fstat(fd, &s.stat) == 0) continue;
+
       // Anything but EBADF means something is seriously wrong.  We don't
       // have to special-case EINTR, fstat() is not interruptible.
       if (errno != EBADF) ABORT();
-      if (fd != open("/dev/null", O_RDWR)) ABORT();
-      if (fstat(fd, &s.stat) != 0) ABORT();
+
+      // If EBADF (file descriptor doesn't exist), open /dev/null and duplicate
+      // its file descriptor to the invalid file descriptor.  Make sure *that*
+      // file descriptor is valid.
+      const int null_fd = open("/dev/null", O_RDWR);
+      if (null_fd != fd && dup2(null_fd, fd) != 0) ABORT();
+
+      if (fstat(fd, &s.stat) == 0) continue;
+      ABORT();
     }
   }