diff --git a/src/common/utils.cpp b/src/common/utils.cpp
index f748166f..ef9aab8b 100644
--- a/src/common/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/common/utils.cpp
@@ -94,17 +94,13 @@ bool pid_running(pid_t pid) {
     // processes and zombies, and a terminated group host process will always be
     // left as a zombie process. If the process is active, then
     // `/proc/<pid>/{cwd,exe,root}` will be valid symlinks.
-    // NOTE: We can get a `EACCES` here if we don't have permissions to read
-    //       this process's memory, so we should explicitly check for `EINVAL`
-    //       indicating that the 'symlink' is broken or just does not exist at
-    //       all.
     boost::system::error_code err;
     fs::canonical("/proc/" + std::to_string(pid) + "/exe", err);
-    if (err && err.value() == EINVAL) {
-        return false;
-    } else {
-        return true;
-    }
+
+    // NOTE: We can get a `EACCES` here if we don't have permissions to read
+    //       this process's memory. This does mean that the process is still
+    //       running.
+    return err.failed() || err.value() == EACCES;
 }
 
 std::string url_encode_path(std::string path) {