diff --git a/src/shared/rlimit-util.c b/src/shared/rlimit-util.c
index c133f84b7e..74b3a023f1 100644
--- a/src/shared/rlimit-util.c
+++ b/src/shared/rlimit-util.c
@@ -389,3 +389,22 @@ int rlimit_nofile_bump(int limit) {
 
         return 0;
 }
+
+int rlimit_nofile_safe(void) {
+        struct rlimit rl;
+
+        /* Resets RLIMIT_NOFILE's soft limit FD_SETSIZE (i.e. 1024), for compatibility with software still using
+         * select() */
+
+        if (getrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rl) < 0)
+                return log_debug_errno(errno, "Failed to query RLIMIT_NOFILE: %m");
+
+        if (rl.rlim_cur <= FD_SETSIZE)
+                return 0;
+
+        rl.rlim_cur = FD_SETSIZE;
+        if (setrlimit(RLIMIT_NOFILE, &rl) < 0)
+                return log_debug_errno(errno, "Failed to lower RLIMIT_NOFILE's soft limit to " RLIM_FMT ": %m", rl.rlim_cur);
+
+        return 1;
+}
diff --git a/src/shared/rlimit-util.h b/src/shared/rlimit-util.h
index 6139af3ff5..d4fca2b855 100644
--- a/src/shared/rlimit-util.h
+++ b/src/shared/rlimit-util.h
@@ -22,3 +22,4 @@ void rlimit_free_all(struct rlimit **rl);
 #define RLIMIT_MAKE_CONST(lim) ((struct rlimit) { lim, lim })
 
 int rlimit_nofile_bump(int limit);
+int rlimit_nofile_safe(void);