diff --git a/programs/fileio.c b/programs/fileio.c
index a16315306..790c10b87 100644
--- a/programs/fileio.c
+++ b/programs/fileio.c
@@ -669,7 +669,6 @@ FIO_openDstFile(FIO_ctx_t* fCtx, FIO_prefs_t* const prefs,
 
     if (UTIL_isRegularFile(dstFileName)) {
         /* Check if destination file already exists */
-        FILE* const fCheck = fopen( dstFileName, "rb" );
 #if !defined(_WIN32)
         /* this test does not work on Windows :
          * `NUL` and `nul` are detected as regular files */
@@ -678,22 +677,20 @@ FIO_openDstFile(FIO_ctx_t* fCtx, FIO_prefs_t* const prefs,
                         dstFileName);
         }
 #endif
-        if (fCheck != NULL) {  /* dst file exists, authorization prompt */
-            fclose(fCheck);
-            if (!prefs->overwrite) {
-                if (g_display_prefs.displayLevel <= 1) {
-                    /* No interaction possible */
-                    DISPLAY("zstd: %s already exists; not overwritten  \n",
-                            dstFileName);
-                    return NULL;
-                }
-                DISPLAY("zstd: %s already exists; ", dstFileName);
-                if (UTIL_requireUserConfirmation("overwrite (y/n) ? ", "Not overwritten  \n", "yY", fCtx->hasStdinInput))
-                    return NULL;
+        if (!prefs->overwrite) {
+            if (g_display_prefs.displayLevel <= 1) {
+                /* No interaction possible */
+                DISPLAY("zstd: %s already exists; not overwritten  \n",
+                        dstFileName);
+                return NULL;
             }
-            /* need to unlink */
-            FIO_removeFile(dstFileName);
-    }   }
+            DISPLAY("zstd: %s already exists; ", dstFileName);
+            if (UTIL_requireUserConfirmation("overwrite (y/n) ? ", "Not overwritten  \n", "yY", fCtx->hasStdinInput))
+                return NULL;
+        }
+        /* need to unlink */
+        FIO_removeFile(dstFileName);
+    }
 
     {   const int fd = open(dstFileName, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, mode);
         FILE* f = NULL;
diff --git a/tests/playTests.sh b/tests/playTests.sh
index 358b6b512..869b4445e 100755
--- a/tests/playTests.sh
+++ b/tests/playTests.sh
@@ -513,6 +513,21 @@ if [ "$isWindows" = false ] ; then
 
     rm -f tmp1.zst tmp2.zst tmp1.out tmp2.out
 
+    println "test : check permissions on pre-existing output file in compression "
+    chmod 0600 tmp1
+    touch tmp1.zst
+    chmod 0400 tmp1.zst
+    zstd -f tmp1 -o tmp1.zst
+    assertFilePermissions tmp1.zst 600
+    println "test : check permissions on pre-existing output file in decompression "
+    chmod 0400 tmp1.zst
+    touch tmp1.out
+    chmod 0200 tmp1.out
+    zstd -f -d tmp1.zst -o tmp1.out
+    assertFilePermissions tmp1.out 400
+
+    rm -f tmp1.zst tmp1.out
+
     umask 0666
     chmod 0666 tmp1 tmp2