diff --git a/src/etc/netstart b/src/etc/netstart
index 62b9ed13..60b0dea7 100644
--- a/src/etc/netstart
+++ b/src/etc/netstart
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh -
 #
-#	$OpenBSD: netstart,v 1.169 2016/07/19 08:03:01 mpi Exp $
+#	$OpenBSD: netstart,v 1.170 2016/09/09 19:48:16 jasper Exp $
 
 # Turn off Strict Bourne shell mode.
 set +o sh
@@ -167,6 +167,12 @@ ifv6autoconf() {
 	done
 }
 
+# Make sure the invoking user has the right privileges.
+if (($(id -u) != 0)); then
+	echo "${0##*/}: need root privileges"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
 # Get network related vars from rc.conf using the parsing routine from rc.subr.
 FUNCS_ONLY=1 . /etc/rc.d/rc.subr
 _rc_parse_conf