diff --git a/tuf/ngclient/file_lock.py b/tuf/ngclient/file_lock.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c5cb3da5b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tuf/ngclient/file_lock.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Copyright 2025, New York University and the TUF contributors
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
+
+"""Minimal file locking implementation.
+
+Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/489861/locking-a-file-in-python
+"""
+
+try:
+    # Posix based file locking (Linux, Ubuntu, MacOS, etc.)
+    #   Only allows locking on writable files, might cause
+    #   strange results for reading.
+    import fcntl
+    def lock_file(f):
+        if f.writable(): fcntl.lockf(f, fcntl.LOCK_EX)
+except ModuleNotFoundError:
+    # Windows file locking
+    import msvcrt
+    def file_size(f):
+        return os.path.getsize( os.path.realpath(f.name) )
+    def lock_file(f):
+        msvcrt.locking(f.fileno(), msvcrt.LK_RLCK, file_size(f))
diff --git a/tuf/ngclient/updater.py b/tuf/ngclient/updater.py
index a98e799ce4..5431a1cec5 100644
--- a/tuf/ngclient/updater.py
+++ b/tuf/ngclient/updater.py
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
 from tuf.api.metadata import Root, Snapshot, TargetFile, Targets, Timestamp
 from tuf.ngclient._internal.trusted_metadata_set import TrustedMetadataSet
 from tuf.ngclient.config import EnvelopeType, UpdaterConfig
+from tuf.ngclient.file_lock import lock_file
 from tuf.ngclient.urllib3_fetcher import Urllib3Fetcher
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
@@ -362,9 +363,12 @@ def _update_root_symlink(self) -> None:
         linkname = os.path.join(self._dir, "root.json")
         version = self._trusted_set.root.version
         current = os.path.join("root_history", f"{version}.root.json")
-        with contextlib.suppress(FileNotFoundError):
-            os.remove(linkname)
-        os.symlink(current, linkname)
+
+        with open(os.path.join(self._dir, current + ".lck"), "wb") as f:
+            lock_file(f)
+            with contextlib.suppress(FileNotFoundError):
+                os.remove(linkname)
+            os.symlink(current, linkname)
 
     def _load_root(self) -> None:
         """Load root metadata.