diff --git a/lib/assert.js b/lib/assert.js
index b7d7a3da01d520..a88efd0b018a47 100644
--- a/lib/assert.js
+++ b/lib/assert.js
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ const CallTracker = require('internal/assert/calltracker');
 const {
   validateFunction,
 } = require('internal/validators');
+const { URL, fileURLToPath } = require('internal/url');
 
 let isDeepEqual;
 let isDeepStrictEqual;
@@ -296,7 +297,7 @@ function getErrMessage(message, fn) {
   overrideStackTrace.set(err, (_, stack) => stack);
   const call = err.stack[0];
 
-  const filename = call.getFileName();
+  let filename = call.getFileName();
   const line = call.getLineNumber() - 1;
   let column = call.getColumnNumber() - 1;
   let identifier;
@@ -330,6 +331,15 @@ function getErrMessage(message, fn) {
         const { StringDecoder } = require('string_decoder');
         decoder = new StringDecoder('utf8');
       }
+
+      // ESM file prop is a file proto. Convert that to path.
+      // This ensure opensync will not throw ENOENT for ESM files.
+      const fileProtoPrefix = 'file://';
+      if (StringPrototypeStartsWith(filename, fileProtoPrefix)) {
+        const fileUrl = new URL(filename);
+        filename = fileURLToPath(fileUrl);
+      }
+
       fd = openSync(filename, 'r', 0o666);
       // Reset column and message.
       ({ 0: column, 1: message } = getCode(fd, line, column));