diff --git a/tools/perf/util/symbol-elf.c b/tools/perf/util/symbol-elf.c
index 8fb25a5692b5..51e7cfe0f593 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/symbol-elf.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/symbol-elf.c
@@ -1027,7 +1027,14 @@ int filename__read_debuglink(const char *filename, char *debuglink,
 		goto out_elf_end;
 
 	/* the start of this section is a zero-terminated string */
-	strncpy(debuglink, data->d_buf, size);
+	if (data->d_size > 0) {
+		size_t len = min(size - 1, data->d_size);
+
+		memcpy(debuglink, data->d_buf, len);
+		debuglink[len] = '\0';
+	} else {
+		debuglink[0] = '\0';
+	}
 
 	err = 0;