diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 50f0940633e..70abf45dfad 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -440,6 +440,8 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     URLConnectionFactory which does not import SSL certificates. (Haohui Mai via
     jing9)
 
+    HDFS-5961. OIV cannot load fsimages containing a symbolic link. (kihwal)
+
   BREAKDOWN OF HDFS-5698 SUBTASKS AND RELATED JIRAS
 
     HDFS-5717. Save FSImage header in protobuf. (Haohui Mai via jing9)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/ImageLoaderCurrent.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/ImageLoaderCurrent.java
index 19b859118ec..6a6dedb173b 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/ImageLoaderCurrent.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/tools/offlineImageViewer/ImageLoaderCurrent.java
@@ -737,6 +737,7 @@ class ImageLoaderCurrent implements ImageLoader {
       processPermission(in, v);
     } else if (numBlocks == -2) {
       v.visit(ImageElement.SYMLINK, Text.readString(in));
+      processPermission(in, v);
     } else if (numBlocks == -3) { // reference node
       final boolean isWithName = in.readBoolean();
       int snapshotId = in.readInt();