diff --git a/tools/hv/hv_kvp_daemon.c b/tools/hv/hv_kvp_daemon.c
index 5c052dbcaf75ed6e280845b45c5a4f16ae6f489b..0358ad26d2fd7b97a5cfb97d8b17a46eb8f41d38 100644
--- a/tools/hv/hv_kvp_daemon.c
+++ b/tools/hv/hv_kvp_daemon.c
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ static int kvp_file_init(void)
 	int alloc_unit = sizeof(struct kvp_record) * ENTRIES_PER_BLOCK;
 
 	if (access(KVP_CONFIG_LOC, F_OK)) {
-		if (mkdir(KVP_CONFIG_LOC, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IROTH)) {
+		if (mkdir(KVP_CONFIG_LOC, 0755 /* rwxr-xr-x */)) {
 			syslog(LOG_ERR, " Failed to create %s", KVP_CONFIG_LOC);
 			exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
 		}
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ static int kvp_file_init(void)
 		records_read = 0;
 		num_blocks = 1;
 		sprintf(fname, "%s/.kvp_pool_%d", KVP_CONFIG_LOC, i);
-		fd = open(fname, O_RDWR | O_CREAT, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IROTH);
+		fd = open(fname, O_RDWR | O_CREAT, 0644 /* rw-r--r-- */);
 
 		if (fd == -1)
 			return 1;