diff --git a/certbot-apache/certbot_apache/_internal/configurator.py b/certbot-apache/certbot_apache/_internal/configurator.py
index 8c644c265..172817547 100644
--- a/certbot-apache/certbot_apache/_internal/configurator.py
+++ b/certbot-apache/certbot_apache/_internal/configurator.py
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ class ApacheConfigurator(common.Installer):
         try:
             with open(ssl_module_location, mode="rb") as f:
                 contents = f.read()
-        except IOError as error:
+        except IOError:
             return None
         return contents
 
diff --git a/certbot-apache/tests/configurator_test.py b/certbot-apache/tests/configurator_test.py
index 9bb9a83b4..cbeb73fec 100644
--- a/certbot-apache/tests/configurator_test.py
+++ b/certbot-apache/tests/configurator_test.py
@@ -1836,6 +1836,10 @@ class InstallSslOptionsConfTest(util.ApacheTest):
                 self.assertEqual(self.config.openssl_version(), None)
                 self.assertTrue("Could not find OpenSSL" in mock_log.call_args[0][0])
 
+    def test_open_module_file(self):
+        mock_open = mock.mock_open(read_data="testing 12 3")
+        with mock.patch("certbot_apache._internal.configurator.open", mock_open):
+            self.assertEqual (self.config._open_module_file("/nonsense/"), "testing 12 3")
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()  # pragma: no cover