diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/shadow/default.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/shadow/default.nix
index 54129c79b830..6d83c98a422e 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/shadow/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/shadow/default.nix
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       })
     ];
 
+  # The nix daemon often forbids even creating set[ug]id files.
+  postPatch =
+    ''sed 's/^\(s[ug]idperms\) = [0-9]755/\1 = 0755/' -i src/Makefile.am
+    '';
+
   outputs = [ "out" "su" "man" ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;