diff --git a/Documentation/networking/tuntap.txt b/Documentation/networking/tuntap.txt
index 76750fb..839cbb7 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/tuntap.txt
+++ b/Documentation/networking/tuntap.txt
@@ -39,10 +39,13 @@
      mknod /dev/net/tun c 10 200
   
   Set permissions:
-     e.g. chmod 0700 /dev/net/tun
-     if you want the device only accessible by root. Giving regular users the
-     right to assign network devices is NOT a good idea. Users could assign
-     bogus network interfaces to trick firewalls or administrators.
+     e.g. chmod 0666 /dev/net/tun
+     There's no harm in allowing the device to be accessible by non-root users,
+     since CAP_NET_ADMIN is required for creating network devices or for 
+     connecting to network devices which aren't owned by the user in question.
+     If you want to create persistent devices and give ownership of them to 
+     unprivileged users, then you need the /dev/net/tun device to be usable by
+     those users.
 
   Driver module autoloading
 
diff --git a/drivers/net/tun.c b/drivers/net/tun.c
index a1ed2d9..6c62d5c 100644
--- a/drivers/net/tun.c
+++ b/drivers/net/tun.c
@@ -490,6 +490,9 @@
 
 		err = -EINVAL;
 
+		if (!capable(CAP_NET_ADMIN))
+			return -EPERM;
+
 		/* Set dev type */
 		if (ifr->ifr_flags & IFF_TUN) {
 			/* TUN device */