diff --git a/winsup/doc/ChangeLog b/winsup/doc/ChangeLog
index 75d6ae185..4730937a4 100644
--- a/winsup/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/winsup/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2009-01-24  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
+
+	* pathnames.sgml: Add requirement for world-readability of special
+	/etc files.
+
 2009-01-24  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
 
 	* pathnames.sgml: Add section about accessing /etc files.
diff --git a/winsup/doc/pathnames.sgml b/winsup/doc/pathnames.sgml
index 845c4fbbe..7720ec8c9 100644
--- a/winsup/doc/pathnames.sgml
+++ b/winsup/doc/pathnames.sgml
@@ -262,6 +262,12 @@ when accessing the above files so all these files as well as
 <filename>/etc</filename> itself may be NTFS symlinks or reparse
 points.</para>
 
+<para>Last but not least, make sure that these files are world-readable.
+Every process of any user account has to read these files potentially,
+so world-readability is essential.  The only exception are the user
+specific files <filename>/etc/fstab.d/$USER</filename>, which only have
+to be readable by the $USER user account itself.</para>
+
 </sect2>
 
 <sect2 id="pathnames-dosdevices"><title>DOS devices</title>