diff --git a/src/slurmd/shmem_struct.c b/src/slurmd/shmem_struct.c
index 67f938966e8d7549c21af130654a359977059a6e..0a3dc623e42deeb1ce4471ef415d33bb79b6b075 100644
--- a/src/slurmd/shmem_struct.c
+++ b/src/slurmd/shmem_struct.c
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 
 extern int errno ;
 static int shmem_gid ;
-#define OCTAL_RW_PERMISSIONS 0666
+#define OCTAL_RW_PERMISSIONS 0600
 
 /* function prototypes */
 static void clear_task ( task_t * task );