diff --git a/libcutils/ashmem-dev.c b/libcutils/ashmem-dev.c
index b4abb79d8..95f2259ec 100644
--- a/libcutils/ashmem-dev.c
+++ b/libcutils/ashmem-dev.c
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ static int __ashmem_open_locked()
     int ret;
     struct stat st;
 
-    int fd = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(open(ASHMEM_DEVICE, O_RDWR));
+    int fd = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(open(ASHMEM_DEVICE, O_RDWR | O_CLOEXEC));
     if (fd < 0) {
         return fd;
     }