diff --git a/src/basic/terminal-util.c b/src/basic/terminal-util.c
index 4d84998189..6051daf5bb 100644
--- a/src/basic/terminal-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/terminal-util.c
@@ -898,7 +898,7 @@ int make_stdio(int fd) {
 int make_null_stdio(void) {
         int null_fd;
 
-        null_fd = open("/dev/null", O_RDWR|O_NOCTTY);
+        null_fd = open("/dev/null", O_RDWR|O_NOCTTY|O_CLOEXEC);
         if (null_fd < 0)
                 return -errno;