diff --git a/src/install/dracut-install.c b/src/install/dracut-install.c
index 6bf5ce1fd7..d60584c438 100644
--- a/src/install/dracut-install.c
+++ b/src/install/dracut-install.c
@@ -682,9 +682,11 @@ void mark_hostonly(const char *path)
 
         _asprintf(&fulldstpath, "%s/lib/dracut/hostonly-files", destrootdir);
 
-        f = fopen(fulldstpath, "a");
+        int fd = open(fulldstpath, O_RDONLY | O_APPEND, 0600);
+        if (fd != -1)
+                f = fdopen(fd, "a");
 
-        if (f == NULL) {
+        if (fd == -1 || f == NULL) {
                 log_error("Could not open '%s' for writing.", fulldstpath);
                 return;
         }