diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 1883da984d6..626a090abfc 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ Optimizations
 
 Bug Fixes
 ---------------------
-(No changes)
+* SOLR-12429: Uploading a configset with a symbolic link produces a IOException. Now a error message to user generated instead. (Eric Pugh)
 
 Dependency Upgrades
 ---------------------
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/FileTypeMagicUtil.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/FileTypeMagicUtil.java
index 692cda83bd3..f9e349b3f25 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/FileTypeMagicUtil.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/FileTypeMagicUtil.java
@@ -60,6 +60,14 @@ public static void assertConfigSetFolderLegal(Path confPath) throws IOException
         new SimpleFileVisitor<>() {
           @Override
           public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file, BasicFileAttributes attrs) {
+            if (Files.isSymbolicLink(file)) {
+              throw new SolrException(
+                  SolrException.ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST,
+                  String.format(
+                      Locale.ROOT,
+                      "Not uploading symbolic link %s to configset, as symbolic links are not supported in ZooKeeper",
+                      file));
+            }
             if (FileTypeMagicUtil.isFileForbiddenInConfigset(file)) {
               throw new SolrException(
                   SolrException.ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST,
diff --git a/solr/packaging/test/test_zk.bats b/solr/packaging/test/test_zk.bats
index 87c2501beba..6c776c411ed 100644
--- a/solr/packaging/test/test_zk.bats
+++ b/solr/packaging/test/test_zk.bats
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ teardown() {
   sleep 1
   run solr zk ls / -z localhost:${ZK_PORT}
   assert_output --partial "myfile3.txt"
-  
+
   run solr zk cp zk:/ -r "${BATS_TEST_TMPDIR}/recursive_download/"
   [ -e "${BATS_TEST_TMPDIR}/recursive_download/myfile.txt" ]
   [ -e "${BATS_TEST_TMPDIR}/recursive_download/myfile2.txt" ]
@@ -139,6 +139,26 @@ teardown() {
   assert_output --partial '"configSets":["_default","techproducts2"]'
 }
 
+@test "SOLR-12429 test upconfig fails with symlink" {
+  # should be unit test but had problems with Java SecurityManager and symbolic links
+  local source_configset_dir="${SOLR_TIP}/server/solr/configsets/sample_techproducts_configs"
+  test -d $source_configset_dir
+
+  ln -s ${source_configset_dir}/conf/stopwords.txt ${source_configset_dir}/conf/symlinked_stopwords.txt
+  ln -s ${source_configset_dir}/conf/lang ${source_configset_dir}/conf/language
+
+  # Use the -L option to confirm we have a symlink
+  [ -L ${source_configset_dir}/conf/symlinked_stopwords.txt ]
+  [ -L ${source_configset_dir}/conf/language ]
+
+  run solr zk upconfig -d ${source_configset_dir} -n techproducts_with_symlinks -z localhost:${ZK_PORT}
+  assert_output --partial "Uploading"
+  assert_output --partial "ERROR: Not uploading symbolic link"
+
+  rm ${source_configset_dir}/conf/symlinked_stopwords.txt
+  rm -d ${source_configset_dir}/conf/language
+}
+
 @test "downconfig" {
   run solr zk downconfig -z localhost:${ZK_PORT} -n _default -d "${BATS_TEST_TMPDIR}/downconfig"
   assert_output --partial "Downloading"