diff --git a/Lib/tarfile.py b/Lib/tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/tarfile.py
@@ -55,13 +55,7 @@
     grp = pwd = None
 
 # os.symlink on Windows prior to 6.0 raises NotImplementedError
-symlink_exception = (AttributeError, NotImplementedError)
-try:
-    # OSError (winerror=1314) will be raised if the caller does not hold the
-    # SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege privilege
-    symlink_exception += (OSError,)
-except NameError:
-    pass
+symlink_exception = (AttributeError, NotImplementedError, OSError)
 
 # from tarfile import *
 __all__ = ["TarFile", "TarInfo", "is_tarfile", "TarError", "ReadError",
@@ -2205,7 +2199,12 @@
                 else:
                     self._extract_member(self._find_link_target(tarinfo),
                                          targetpath)
-        except symlink_exception:
+        except symlink_exception as e:
+            # On Windows, OSError (winerror=1314) will be raised if the caller
+            # does not hold the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege privilege.
+            if getattr(e, "winerror", None) is None:
+                raise
+
             try:
                 self._extract_member(self._find_link_target(tarinfo),
                                      targetpath)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
@@ -525,12 +525,21 @@
                 data = f.read()
             self.assertEqual(md5sum(data), md5_regtype)
 
+    @support.skip_unless_symlink
+    def test_extract_symlink(self):
+        # Test symlink extraction (e.g. bug #23228).
+        with tarfile.open(tarname, errorlevel=1, encoding="iso8859-1") as tar:
+            tar.extract("ustar/regtype", TEMPDIR)
+            self.addCleanup(support.unlink, os.path.join(TEMPDIR, "ustar/regtype"))
+
             tar.extract("ustar/symtype", TEMPDIR)
             self.addCleanup(support.unlink, os.path.join(TEMPDIR, "ustar/symtype"))
             with open(os.path.join(TEMPDIR, "ustar/symtype"), "rb") as f:
                 data = f.read()
             self.assertEqual(md5sum(data), md5_regtype)
 
+            self.assertRaises(FileExistsError, tar.extract, "ustar/symtype", TEMPDIR)
+
     def test_extractall(self):
         # Test if extractall() correctly restores directory permissions
         # and times (see issue1735).