diff --git a/ejabberdctl.template b/ejabberdctl.template
index 836377662..571b90b66 100755
--- a/ejabberdctl.template
+++ b/ejabberdctl.template
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ export ERL_LIBS
 exec_cmd()
 {
     case $EXEC_CMD in
-        as_install_user) su -c '"$0" "$@"' "$INSTALLUSER" -- "$@" ;;
+        as_install_user) su -s /bin/sh -c '"$0" "$@"' "$INSTALLUSER" -- "$@" ;;
         as_current_user) "$@" ;;
     esac
 }