diff --git a/src/etc/netstart b/src/etc/netstart
index 4ac1ec04..f780259a 100644
--- a/src/etc/netstart
+++ b/src/etc/netstart
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh -
 #
-#	$OpenBSD: netstart,v 1.122 2008/07/23 16:05:47 sthen Exp $
+#	$OpenBSD: netstart,v 1.123 2008/08/14 00:59:50 sthen Exp $
 
 # Strip comments (and leading/trailing whitespace if IFS is set)
 # from a file and spew to stdout
@@ -40,7 +40,9 @@ ifstart() {
 		echo "netstart: $file: No such file or directory"
 		return
 	fi
-	if [ "$(stat -Lf "%SLp %u %g" $file)" != "--- 0 0" ]; then
+	# Not using stat(1), we can't rely on having /usr yet
+	set -A stat -- `ls -nL $file`
+	if [ "${stat[0]#???????} ${stat[2]} ${stat[3]}" != "--- 0 0" ]; then
 		echo "WARNING: $file is insecure, fixing permissions"
 		chmod -LR o-rwx $file
 		chown -LR root.wheel $file