diff --git a/bin/swift-drive-audit b/bin/swift-drive-audit
index 010fa10a..bda4cd2a 100755
--- a/bin/swift-drive-audit
+++ b/bin/swift-drive-audit
@@ -208,7 +208,8 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
                     total_errors += count
     recon_file = recon_cache_path + "/drive.recon"
     dump_recon_cache(recon_errors, recon_file, logger)
-    dump_recon_cache({'drive_audit_errors': total_errors}, recon_file, logger)
+    dump_recon_cache({'drive_audit_errors': total_errors}, recon_file, logger,
+                     set_owner=conf.get("user", "swift"))
 
     if unmounts == 0:
         logger.info("No drives were unmounted")
diff --git a/doc/source/admin_guide.rst b/doc/source/admin_guide.rst
index ffeb3223..c9f69f39 100644
--- a/doc/source/admin_guide.rst
+++ b/doc/source/admin_guide.rst
@@ -264,6 +264,8 @@ settings:
 ==================  ==============  ===========================================
 Option              Default         Description
 ------------------  --------------  -------------------------------------------
+user                swift           Drop privileges to this user for non-root
+                                    tasks
 log_facility        LOG_LOCAL0      Syslog log facility
 log_level           INFO            Log level
 device_dir          /srv/node       Directory devices are mounted under
diff --git a/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample b/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample
index b1d8e4d0..fc7f730e 100644
--- a/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample
+++ b/etc/drive-audit.conf-sample
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 [drive-audit]
+# user = swift
 # device_dir = /srv/node
 #
 # You can specify default log routing here if you want:
diff --git a/swift/common/utils.py b/swift/common/utils.py
index e18a8bce..4c41a4d9 100644
--- a/swift/common/utils.py
+++ b/swift/common/utils.py
@@ -3037,13 +3037,15 @@ def put_recon_cache_entry(cache_entry, key, item):
         cache_entry[key] = item
 
 
-def dump_recon_cache(cache_dict, cache_file, logger, lock_timeout=2):
+def dump_recon_cache(cache_dict, cache_file, logger, lock_timeout=2,
+                     set_owner=None):
     """Update recon cache values
 
     :param cache_dict: Dictionary of cache key/value pairs to write out
     :param cache_file: cache file to update
     :param logger: the logger to use to log an encountered error
     :param lock_timeout: timeout (in seconds)
+    :param set_owner: Set owner of recon cache file
     """
     try:
         with lock_file(cache_file, lock_timeout, unlink=False) as cf:
@@ -3062,6 +3064,8 @@ def dump_recon_cache(cache_dict, cache_file, logger, lock_timeout=2):
                 with NamedTemporaryFile(dir=os.path.dirname(cache_file),
                                         delete=False) as tf:
                     tf.write(json.dumps(cache_entry) + '\n')
+                if set_owner:
+                    os.chown(tf.name, pwd.getpwnam(set_owner).pw_uid, -1)
                 renamer(tf.name, cache_file, fsync=False)
             finally:
                 if tf is not None:
diff --git a/test/unit/common/test_utils.py b/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
index 6de88591..0b25a2bf 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
@@ -1377,6 +1377,28 @@ class TestUtils(unittest.TestCase):
         finally:
             rmtree(testdir_base)
 
+    def test_dump_recon_cache_set_owner(self):
+        testdir_base = mkdtemp()
+        testcache_file = os.path.join(testdir_base, 'cache.recon')
+        logger = utils.get_logger(None, 'server', log_route='server')
+        try:
+            submit_dict = {'key1': {'value1': 1, 'value2': 2}}
+
+            _ret = lambda: None
+            _ret.pw_uid = 100
+            _mock_getpwnam = MagicMock(return_value=_ret)
+            _mock_chown = mock.Mock()
+
+            with patch('os.chown', _mock_chown), \
+                    patch('pwd.getpwnam', _mock_getpwnam):
+                utils.dump_recon_cache(submit_dict, testcache_file,
+                                       logger, set_owner="swift")
+
+            _mock_getpwnam.assert_called_once_with("swift")
+            self.assertEqual(_mock_chown.call_args[0][1], 100)
+        finally:
+            rmtree(testdir_base)
+
     def test_dump_recon_cache_permission_denied(self):
         testdir_base = mkdtemp()
         testcache_file = os.path.join(testdir_base, 'cache.recon')