diff --git a/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util.go b/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util.go
index 4e7f4ca1a..919008f31 100644
--- a/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util.go
+++ b/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util.go
@@ -303,6 +303,10 @@ func isPathWithin(rootPath, toCheckPath string) (bool, error) {
 
 	checkStat, err := os.Stat(toCheckPath[0:len(rootPath)])
 	if err != nil {
+		if errors.Is(err, os.ErrNotExist) {
+			return false, nil
+		}
+
 		return false, err
 	}
 
diff --git a/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util_test.go b/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util_test.go
index 925770eef..07ee95570 100644
--- a/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util_test.go
+++ b/client/allocrunner/taskrunner/getter/util_test.go
@@ -286,4 +286,15 @@ func TestUtil_isPathWithin(t *testing.T) {
 		must.ErrorContains(t, err, "no such file or directory")
 		must.False(t, result)
 	})
+
+	t.Run("when path not within root but shorter", func(t *testing.T) {
+		root, err := os.MkdirTemp(tdir, "testing-path-XXX")
+		must.NoError(t, err)
+		check, err := os.MkdirTemp(tdir, "testing-path-XXXX")
+		must.NoError(t, err)
+		result, err := isPathWithin(root, check)
+
+		must.NoError(t, err)
+		must.False(t, result)
+	})
 }