diff --git a/kernel/src/sys/open.cpp b/kernel/src/sys/open.cpp
index 3a57f3ea..9453e574 100644
--- a/kernel/src/sys/open.cpp
+++ b/kernel/src/sys/open.cpp
@@ -23,11 +23,6 @@ Result<u64> sys_openat(Registers*, SyscallArgs args)
     // Caller did not pass either O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY or O_RDWR
     if ((flags & O_RDWR) == 0) { return err(EINVAL); }
 
-    if (flags & O_DIRECTORY)
-    {
-        if ((flags & O_WRONLY) || (flags & O_CREAT)) return err(EINVAL);
-    }
-
     if (flags & O_TMPFILE)
     {
         if (!(flags & O_WRONLY)) return err(EINVAL);
@@ -66,6 +61,11 @@ Result<u64> sys_openat(Registers*, SyscallArgs args)
 
     if (inode->type() != VFS::InodeType::Directory && (flags & O_DIRECTORY)) return err(ENOTDIR);
 
+    if (inode->type() == VFS::InodeType::Directory)
+    {
+        if ((flags & O_WRONLY) || (flags & O_CREAT)) return err(EISDIR);
+    }
+
     if ((flags & O_WRONLY) && (flags & O_TRUNC)) inode->truncate(0);
 
     int fd = TRY(current->allocate_fd(0));