diff --git a/package/systemd/systemd.mk b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
index db7fb43636..1c1808dbcb 100644
--- a/package/systemd/systemd.mk
+++ b/package/systemd/systemd.mk
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ SYSTEMD_CONF_OPTS += \
 	-Dkexec-path=/usr/sbin/kexec \
 	-Dsulogin-path=/usr/sbin/sulogin \
 	-Dmount-path=/usr/bin/mount \
-	-Dumount-path=/usr/bin/umount
+	-Dumount-path=/usr/bin/umount \
+	-Dnobody-group=nogroup
 
 # disable unsupported features for non-glibc toolchains
 ifeq ($(BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_GLIBC),y)