diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c73b560e..12b8cb43 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ DNSMASQOPTS = -DHAVE_DNSSEC -DHAVE_DNSSEC_STATIC
 # Flags for compiling with libidn2: -DHAVE_LIBIDN2 -DIDN2_VERSION_NUMBER=0x02000003
 
 FTLDEPS = FTL.h routines.h version.h api.h dnsmasq_interface.h shmem.h
-FTLOBJ = main.o memory.o log.o daemon.o datastructure.o signals.o socket.o request.o grep.o setupVars.o args.o gc.o config.o database.o msgpack.o api.o dnsmasq_interface.o resolve.o regex.o shmem.o capabilities.o networktable.o overTime.o gravity.o
+FTLOBJ = main.o memory.o log.o daemon.o datastructure.o signals.o socket.o request.o files.o setupVars.o args.o gc.o config.o database.o msgpack.o api.o dnsmasq_interface.o resolve.o regex.o shmem.o capabilities.o networktable.o overTime.o gravity.o
 
 DNSMASQDEPS = config.h dhcp-protocol.h dns-protocol.h radv-protocol.h dhcp6-protocol.h dnsmasq.h ip6addr.h metrics.h ../dnsmasq_interface.h
 DNSMASQOBJ = arp.o dbus.o domain.o lease.o outpacket.o rrfilter.o auth.o dhcp6.o edns0.o log.o poll.o slaac.o blockdata.o dhcp.o forward.o loop.o radv.o tables.o bpf.o dhcp-common.o helper.o netlink.o rfc1035.o tftp.o cache.o dnsmasq.o inotify.o network.o rfc2131.o util.o conntrack.o dnssec.o ipset.o option.o rfc3315.o crypto.o dump.o ubus.o metrics.o
diff --git a/database.c b/database.c
index 2be5c301..36cee33b 100644
--- a/database.c
+++ b/database.c
@@ -196,6 +196,15 @@ static bool db_create(void)
 	if(!create_network_table())
 		return false;
 
+	// Done initializing the database
+	// Close database handle
+	dbclose();
+
+	// Explicitly set permissions to 0644
+	// 644 =            u+w       u+r       g+r       o+r
+	const mode_t mode = S_IWUSR | S_IRUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH;
+	chmod_file(FTLfiles.db, mode);
+
 	return true;
 }
 
diff --git a/grep.c b/files.c
similarity index 74%
rename from grep.c
rename to files.c
index 628940a3..bd1becc4 100644
--- a/grep.c
+++ b/files.c
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 *  Network-wide ad blocking via your own hardware.
 *
 *  FTL Engine
-*  grep-like routines
+*  File operation routines
 *
 *  This file is copyright under the latest version of the EUPL.
 *  Please see LICENSE file for your rights under this license. */
@@ -125,3 +125,33 @@ void check_blocking_status(void)
 
 	logg("Blocking status is %s", message);
 }
+
+// chmod_file() changes the file mode bits of a given file (relative
+// to the directory file descriptor) according to mode. mode is an
+// octal number representing the bit pattern for the new mode bits
+bool chmod_file(const char *filename, const mode_t mode)
+{
+	if(chmod(filename, mode) < 0)
+	{
+		logg("WARNING: chmod(%s, %d): chmod() failed: %s (%d)", filename, mode, strerror(errno), errno);
+		return false;
+	}
+
+	struct stat st;
+	if(stat(filename, &st) < 0)
+	{
+		logg("WARNING: chmod(%s, %d): stat() failed: %s (%d)", filename, mode, strerror(errno), errno);
+		return false;
+	}
+
+	// We need to apply a bitmask on st.st_mode as the upper bits may contain random data
+	// 0x1FF = 0b111_111_111 corresponding to the three-digit octal mode number
+	if((st.st_mode & 0x1FF) != mode)
+	{
+		logg("WARNING: chmod(%s, %d): Verification failed, %d != %d", filename, mode, st.st_mode, mode);
+		return false;
+	}
+
+	return true;
+}
+
diff --git a/routines.h b/routines.h
index 35873bb7..0e3d973d 100644
--- a/routines.h
+++ b/routines.h
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ const char *getDomainString(const int queryID);
 const char *getClientIPString(const int queryID);
 const char *getClientNameString(const int queryID);
 
+// socket.c
 void close_telnet_socket(void);
 void close_unix_socket(void);
 void seom(const int sock);
@@ -45,32 +46,33 @@ void ssend(const int sock, const char *format, ...) __attribute__ ((format (gnu_
 void swrite(const int sock, const void* value, const size_t size);
 void *telnet_listening_thread_IPv4(void *args);
 void *telnet_listening_thread_IPv6(void *args);
-
 void *socket_listening_thread(void *args);
 bool ipv6_available(void);
 void bind_sockets(void);
 
+// request.c
 void process_request(const char *client_message, int *sock);
 bool command(const char *client_message, const char* cmd) __attribute__((pure));
 
-// grep.c
+// files.c
 int countlines(const char* fname);
 int countlineswith(const char* str, const char* fname);
 void check_blocking_status(void);
+bool chmod_file(const char *filename, const mode_t mode);
 
+// setupVars.c
 void check_setupVarsconf(void);
 char * read_setupVarsconf(const char * key);
 void getSetupVarsArray(const char * input);
 void clearSetupVarsArray(void);
 bool insetupVarsArray(const char * str);
 bool getSetupVarsBool(const char * input) __attribute__((pure));
-
-void parse_args(int argc, char* argv[]);
-
-// setupVars.c
 char* find_equals(const char* s) __attribute__((pure));
 void trim_whitespace(char *string);
 
+// args.c
+void parse_args(int argc, char* argv[]);
+
 // config.c
 void getLogFilePath(void);
 void read_FTLconf(void);
@@ -102,6 +104,7 @@ void *FTLcalloc(size_t nmemb, size_t size, const char *file, const char *functio
 void *FTLrealloc(void *ptr_in, size_t size, const char *file, const char *function, const int line) __attribute__((alloc_size(2)));
 void FTLfree(void *ptr, const char* file, const char *function, const int line);
 
+// dnsmasq/dnsmasq.c
 int main_dnsmasq(int argc, const char ** argv);
 
 // signals.c
diff --git a/test/run.sh b/test/run.sh
index d78e538f..ce1ea4f4 100755
--- a/test/run.sh
+++ b/test/run.sh
@@ -7,10 +7,23 @@ if [[ ${CI} == "true" && "${CIRCLE_JOB}" != "x86_64" ]]; then
 fi
 
 # Install necessary additional components for testing
-apt-get -qq install dnsutils -y > /dev/null
+apt-get -qq install dnsutils libcap2-bin -y > /dev/null
 
-# Create necessary directories
+# Create pihole user if it does not exist
+if ! id -u pihole &> /dev/null; then
+  useradd -m -s /usr/sbin/nologin pihole
+fi
+
+# Create necessary directories and files
 mkdir -p /etc/pihole /var/run/pihole /var/log
+touch /var/log/pihole-FTL.log /var/run/pihole-FTL.pid /var/run/pihole-FTL.port
+chown pihole:pihole /etc/pihole /var/run/pihole /var/log/pihole-FTL.log /var/run/pihole-FTL.pid /var/run/pihole-FTL.port
+
+# Copy binary into a location the new user pihole can access
+cp ./pihole-FTL /home/pihole
+chmod +x /home/pihole/pihole-FTL
+# Note: We cannot add CAP_NET_RAW and CAP_NET_ADMIN at this point
+setcap CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE+eip /home/pihole/pihole-FTL
 
 # Prepare gravity database
 sqlite3 /etc/pihole/gravity.db < test/gravity.db.sql
@@ -21,15 +34,19 @@ echo "BLOCKING_ENABLED=true" > /etc/pihole/setupVars.conf
 # Prepare pihole-FTL.conf
 echo "" > /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.conf
 
+# Set restrictive umask
+OLDUMASK=$(umask)
+umask 0022
+
 # Start FTL
-if ! ./pihole-FTL; then
+if ! runuser -l pihole -s /bin/sh -c /home/pihole/pihole-FTL; then
   echo "pihole-FTL failed to start"
   exit 1
 fi
 
 # Prepare BATS
 mkdir -p test/libs
-git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/bats-core/bats-core test/libs/bats > /dev/null
+git clone --depth=1 --quiet https://github.com/bats-core/bats-core test/libs/bats > /dev/null
 
 # Block until FTL is ready, retry once per second for 45 seconds
 sleep 2
@@ -45,4 +62,13 @@ cat /var/log/pihole-FTL.log
 
 # Run tests
 test/libs/bats/bin/bats "test/test_suite.bats"
-exit $?
+RET=$?
+
+# Restore umask
+umask $OLDUMASK
+
+# Remove copied file
+rm /home/pihole/pihole-FTL
+
+# Exit with return code of bats tests
+exit $RET
diff --git a/test/test_suite.bats b/test/test_suite.bats
index e64d47da..cd4051ba 100644
--- a/test/test_suite.bats
+++ b/test/test_suite.bats
@@ -250,25 +250,43 @@
 }
 
 @test "Fail on invalid argument" {
-  run bash -c './pihole-FTL abc'
+  run bash -c '/home/pihole/pihole-FTL abc'
   printf "%s\n" "${lines[@]}"
   [[ ${lines[0]} == "pihole-FTL: invalid option -- 'abc'" ]]
-  [[ ${lines[1]} == "Try './pihole-FTL --help' for more information" ]]
+  [[ ${lines[1]} == "Try '/home/pihole/pihole-FTL --help' for more information" ]]
 }
 
 @test "Help argument return help text" {
-  run bash -c './pihole-FTL help'
+  run bash -c '/home/pihole/pihole-FTL help'
   printf "%s\n" "${lines[@]}"
   [[ ${lines[0]} == "pihole-FTL - The Pi-hole FTL engine" ]]
   [[ ${lines[3]} == "Available arguments:" ]]
 }
 
-@test "No FATAL messages in pihole-FTL.log" {
-  run bash -c 'grep -c "FATAL" /var/log/pihole-FTL.log'
+@test "No WARNING messages in pihole-FTL.log (besides known capability issues)" {
+  run bash -c 'grep "WARNING:" /var/log/pihole-FTL.log | grep -c -v -E "CAP_NET_ADMIN|CAP_NET_RAW"'
   printf "%s\n" "${lines[@]}"
   [[ ${lines[0]} == "0" ]]
 }
 
+@test "No ERROR messages in pihole-FTL.log" {
+  run bash -c 'grep -c "ERROR:" /var/log/pihole-FTL.log'
+  printf "%s\n" "${lines[@]}"
+  [[ ${lines[0]} == "0" ]]
+}
+
+@test "No FATAL messages in pihole-FTL.log" {
+  run bash -c 'grep -c "FATAL:" /var/log/pihole-FTL.log'
+  printf "%s\n" "${lines[@]}"
+  [[ ${lines[0]} == "0" ]]
+}
+
+@test "Ownership and permissions of pihole-FTL.db correct" {
+  run bash -c 'ls -l /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL.db'
+  printf "%s\n" "${lines[@]}"
+  [[ ${lines[0]} == "-rw-r--r-- 1 pihole pihole"* ]]
+}
+
 @test "Final part of the tests: Kill pihole-FTL process" {
   run bash -c 'kill $(pidof pihole-FTL)'
   printf "%s\n" "${lines[@]}"