diff --git a/scp.c b/scp.c
index 5a7129220408315bd5be7ad6b1e98a1561873de5..70f45e32cd306ca42098b82f3227138fa4f4969b 100644
--- a/scp.c
+++ b/scp.c
@@ -992,7 +992,7 @@ sink(int argc, char **argv)
 			continue;
 		}
 		omode = mode;
-		mode |= S_IWRITE;
+		mode |= S_IWUSR;
 		if ((ofd = open(np, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT, mode)) < 0) {
 bad:			run_err("%s: %s", np, strerror(errno));
 			continue;