diff --git a/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer.go b/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer.go
index 088aa8b7d..d5f5956f5 100644
--- a/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer.go
+++ b/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer.go
@@ -176,6 +176,13 @@ func isRealPath(root string) (bool, error) {
 func (r *directoryIndexer) indexBranch(root string, stager *progress.Stage) ([]string, error) {
 	rootRealPath, err := filepath.EvalSymlinks(root)
 	if err != nil {
+		var pathErr *os.PathError
+		if errors.As(err, &pathErr) {
+			// we can't index the path, but we shouldn't consider this to be fatal
+			// TODO: known-unknowns
+			log.WithFields("root", root, "error", err).Trace("unable to evaluate symlink while indexing branch")
+			return nil, nil
+		}
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
diff --git a/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer_test.go b/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer_test.go
index 3b9378c72..9e6774235 100644
--- a/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer_test.go
+++ b/syft/internal/fileresolver/directory_indexer_test.go
@@ -222,6 +222,18 @@ func TestDirectoryIndexer_index(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestDirectoryIndexer_index_survive_badSymlink(t *testing.T) {
+	// test-fixtures/bad-symlinks
+	// ├── root
+	// │   ├── place
+	// │   │   └── fd -> ../somewhere/self/fd
+	// │   └── somewhere
+	// ...
+	indexer := newDirectoryIndexer("test-fixtures/bad-symlinks/root/place/fd", "test-fixtures/bad-symlinks/root/place/fd")
+	_, _, err := indexer.build()
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+}
+
 func TestDirectoryIndexer_SkipsAlreadyVisitedLinkDestinations(t *testing.T) {
 	var observedPaths []string
 	pathObserver := func(_, p string, _ os.FileInfo, _ error) error {
diff --git a/syft/internal/fileresolver/test-fixtures/bad-symlinks/root/place/fd b/syft/internal/fileresolver/test-fixtures/bad-symlinks/root/place/fd
new file mode 120000
index 000000000..24486cb37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/syft/internal/fileresolver/test-fixtures/bad-symlinks/root/place/fd
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../somewhere/self/fd
\ No newline at end of file