diff --git a/lib/libalpm/alpm.c b/lib/libalpm/alpm.c
index e71cb02a..6753692f 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/alpm.c
+++ b/lib/libalpm/alpm.c
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@
 #include <curl/curl.h>
 #endif
 
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <pwd.h>
+
 /* libalpm */
 #include "alpm.h"
 #include "alpm_list.h"
@@ -39,6 +42,7 @@ alpm_handle_t SYMEXPORT *alpm_initialize(const char *root, const char *dbpath,
 	const char *lf = "db.lck";
 	char *hookdir;
 	size_t hookdirlen, lockfilelen;
+	struct passwd const *pw = NULL;
 	alpm_handle_t *myhandle = _alpm_handle_new();
 
 	if(myhandle == NULL) {
@@ -78,6 +82,10 @@ alpm_handle_t SYMEXPORT *alpm_initialize(const char *root, const char *dbpath,
 
 	myhandle->parallel_downloads = 1;
 
+	/* set default sandboxuser */
+	ASSERT((pw = getpwuid(0)) != NULL, myerr = errno; goto cleanup);
+	STRDUP(myhandle->sandboxuser, pw->pw_name, goto nomem);
+
 #ifdef ENABLE_NLS
 	bindtextdomain("libalpm", LOCALEDIR);
 #endif