diff --git a/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/commonUtils.ts b/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/commonUtils.ts
index 825ca783bc51..95467aff687e 100644
--- a/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/commonUtils.ts
+++ b/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/commonUtils.ts
@@ -12,10 +12,10 @@ import { comparePythonVersionSpecificity } from '../base/info/env';
 import { parseVersion } from '../base/info/pythonVersion';
 import { getPythonVersionFromConda } from '../discovery/locators/services/conda';
 import { getPythonVersionFromPyvenvCfg } from '../discovery/locators/services/virtualEnvironmentIdentifier';
-import { isPosixPythonBin } from './posixUtils';
+import { isPosixPythonBinPattern } from './posixUtils';
 import { isWindowsPythonExe } from './windowsUtils';
 
-const matchPythonExecutable = getOSType() === OSType.Windows ? isWindowsPythonExe : isPosixPythonBin;
+const matchPythonExecutable = getOSType() === OSType.Windows ? isWindowsPythonExe : isPosixPythonBinPattern;
 
 type FileFilterFunc = (filename: string) => boolean;
 
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ export async function* findInterpretersInDir(
 ): AsyncIterableIterator<string> {
     // "checkBin" is a local variable rather than global
     // so we can stub it out during unit testing.
-    const checkBin = getOSType() === OSType.Windows ? isWindowsPythonExe : isPosixPythonBin;
+    const checkBin = getOSType() === OSType.Windows ? isWindowsPythonExe : isPosixPythonBinPattern;
     const cfg = {
         ignoreErrors,
         filterSubDir,
diff --git a/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/posixUtils.ts b/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/posixUtils.ts
index 181976fddf3d..62227fbcb2c1 100644
--- a/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/posixUtils.ts
+++ b/src/client/pythonEnvironments/common/posixUtils.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import { getSearchPathEntries } from '../../common/utils/exec';
  * @param {string} interpreterPath : Path to python interpreter.
  * @returns {boolean} : Returns true if the path matches pattern for windows python executable.
  */
-export function isPosixPythonBin(interpreterPath: string): boolean {
+export function isPosixPythonBinPattern(interpreterPath: string): boolean {
     /**
      * This Reg-ex matches following file names:
      * python
diff --git a/src/client/pythonEnvironments/discovery/locators/services/posixKnownPathsLocator.ts b/src/client/pythonEnvironments/discovery/locators/services/posixKnownPathsLocator.ts
index 87a4e76d0b16..8dc0e1dc095b 100644
--- a/src/client/pythonEnvironments/discovery/locators/services/posixKnownPathsLocator.ts
+++ b/src/client/pythonEnvironments/discovery/locators/services/posixKnownPathsLocator.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 // Licensed under the MIT License.
 
-import * as fsapi from 'fs-extra';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
 import * as path from 'path';
 import { traceError, traceInfo } from '../../../../common/logger';
 
@@ -11,23 +11,24 @@ import { buildEnvInfo } from '../../../base/info/env';
 import { parseVersion } from '../../../base/info/pythonVersion';
 import { IPythonEnvsIterator, Locator } from '../../../base/locator';
 import { getFileInfo, resolveSymbolicLink } from '../../../common/externalDependencies';
-import { commonPosixBinPaths, isPosixPythonBin } from '../../../common/posixUtils';
+import { commonPosixBinPaths, isPosixPythonBinPattern } from '../../../common/posixUtils';
 
 async function getPythonBinFromKnownPaths(): Promise<string[]> {
-    const knownPaths = await commonPosixBinPaths();
+    const knownDirs = await commonPosixBinPaths();
     const pythonBins: Set<string> = new Set();
-    for (const knownPath of knownPaths) {
-        const files = (await fsapi.readdir(knownPath))
-            .map((filename: string) => path.join(knownPath, filename))
-            .filter(isPosixPythonBin);
+    for (const dirname of knownDirs) {
+        const paths = (await fs.promises.readdir(dirname, { withFileTypes: true }))
+            .filter((dirent: fs.Dirent) => !dirent.isDirectory())
+            .map((dirent: fs.Dirent) => path.join(dirname, dirent.name))
+            .filter(isPosixPythonBinPattern);
 
-        for (const file of files) {
+        for (const filepath of paths) {
             // Ensure that we have a collection of unique global binaries by
             // resolving all symlinks to the target binaries.
             try {
-                const resolvedBin = await resolveSymbolicLink(file);
+                const resolvedBin = await resolveSymbolicLink(filepath);
                 pythonBins.add(resolvedBin);
-                traceInfo(`Found: ${file} --> ${resolvedBin}`);
+                traceInfo(`Found: ${filepath} --> ${resolvedBin}`);
             } catch (ex) {
                 traceError('Failed to resolve symbolic link: ', ex);
             }
diff --git a/src/test/pythonEnvironments/common/envlayouts/posixroot/location3/python3.9/empty b/src/test/pythonEnvironments/common/envlayouts/posixroot/location3/python3.9/empty
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0c6fe8957e8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/pythonEnvironments/common/envlayouts/posixroot/location3/python3.9/empty
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+this is intentionally empty