diff --git a/usr.sbin/etcupdate/etcupdate.sh b/usr.sbin/etcupdate/etcupdate.sh
index 39d1f9e56a5..7bddd6593b5 100755
--- a/usr.sbin/etcupdate/etcupdate.sh
+++ b/usr.sbin/etcupdate/etcupdate.sh
@@ -1611,6 +1611,9 @@ EOF
 	# Initialize conflicts and warnings handling.
 	rm -f $WARNINGS
 	mkdir -p $CONFLICTS
+	if ! chmod 0700 ${CONFLICTS}; then
+		panic "Unable to set permissions on conflicts directory"
+	fi
 
 	# Ignore removed files for the pre-world case.  A pre-world
 	# update uses a stripped-down tree.