diff --git a/src/storage/storage_backend.c b/src/storage/storage_backend.c
index 77e87b3e72..3f36aa3d3d 100644
--- a/src/storage/storage_backend.c
+++ b/src/storage/storage_backend.c
@@ -702,8 +702,28 @@ virStorageBackendCreateExecCommand(virStoragePoolObjPtr pool,
 
         if (virCommandRun(cmd, NULL) == 0) {
             /* command was successfully run, check if the file was created */
-            if (stat(vol->target.path, &st) >= 0)
+            if (stat(vol->target.path, &st) >= 0) {
                 filecreated = true;
+
+                /* seems qemu-img disregards umask and open/creates using 0644.
+                 * If that doesn't match what we expect, then let's try to
+                 * re-open the file and attempt to force the mode change.
+                 */
+                if (mode != (st.st_mode & S_IRWXUGO)) {
+                    int fd = -1;
+                    int flags = VIR_FILE_OPEN_FORK | VIR_FILE_OPEN_FORCE_MODE;
+
+                    if ((fd = virFileOpenAs(vol->target.path, O_RDWR, mode,
+                                            vol->target.perms->uid,
+                                            vol->target.perms->gid,
+                                            flags)) >= 0) {
+                        /* Success - means we're good */
+                        VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(fd);
+                        ret = 0;
+                        goto cleanup;
+                    }
+                }
+            }
         }
     }