diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b21a0bf..5a9ba29 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -395,6 +395,9 @@ facility.
   chroot happens immediately after reading the config file.  All other
   paths specified in the config file (e.g. `DocBase`, `KeyPath`,
   `AccessLog`) must be specified relative to `ChrootDir`.
+* `UnprivUsername`: The username of an unprivileged user on the system
+  which MollyBrown will change setuid() to if started by the superuser
+  or when run as a setuid binary (default value "nobody").
 
 ## .molly files
 
diff --git a/config.go b/config.go
index e1bfc79..3fd5248 100644
--- a/config.go
+++ b/config.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ type Config struct {
 	DocBase               string
 	HomeDocBase           string
 	ChrootDir             string
+	UnprivUsername        string
 	GeminiExt             string
 	DefaultLang           string
 	DefaultEncoding       string
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ func getConfig(filename string) (Config, error) {
 	config.DocBase = "/var/gemini/"
 	config.HomeDocBase = "users"
 	config.ChrootDir = ""
+	config.UnprivUsername = "nobody"
 	config.GeminiExt = "gmi"
 	config.DefaultLang = ""
 	config.DefaultEncoding = ""
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 121836b..2b1a71b 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -47,13 +47,13 @@ func main() {
 	uid := os.Getuid()
 	nobody_uid := -1
 	if uid == 0 {
-		nobody_user, err := user.Lookup("nobody")
+		nobody_user, err := user.Lookup(config.UnprivUsername)
 		if err != nil {
-			log.Fatal("Running as root but could not lookup UID for user " + "nobody" + ": " + err.Error())
+			log.Fatal("Running as root but could not lookup UID for user " + config.UnprivUsername + ": " + err.Error())
 		}
 		nobody_uid, err = strconv.Atoi(nobody_user.Uid)
 		if err != nil {
-			log.Fatal("Running as root but could not lookup UID fr user " + "nobody" + ": " + err.Error())
+			log.Fatal("Running as root but could not lookup UID for user " + config.UnprivUsername + ": " + err.Error())
 		}
 	}