diff --git a/lib/net.js b/lib/net.js
index 05fc4fa9598b04..089c69beb769cd 100644
--- a/lib/net.js
+++ b/lib/net.js
@@ -264,9 +264,16 @@ function Socket(options) {
     const { fd } = options;
     let err;
 
+    // createHandle will throw ERR_INVALID_FD_TYPE if `fd` is not
+    // a valid `PIPE` or `TCP` descriptor
     this._handle = createHandle(fd, false);
 
     err = this._handle.open(fd);
+
+    // While difficult to fabricate, in some architectures
+    // `open` may return an error code for valid file descriptors
+    // which cannot be opened. This is difficult to test as most
+    // un-openable fds will throw on `createHandle`
     if (err)
       throw errnoException(err, 'open');