diff --git a/qga/commands-posix.c b/qga/commands-posix.c
index 77f4672ca2..094487c2c3 100644
--- a/qga/commands-posix.c
+++ b/qga/commands-posix.c
@@ -2529,7 +2529,7 @@ void qmp_guest_set_user_password(const char *username,
         goto out;
     }
 
-    if (pipe(datafd) < 0) {
+    if (!g_unix_open_pipe(datafd, FD_CLOEXEC, NULL)) {
         error_setg(errp, "cannot create pipe FDs");
         goto out;
     }