diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a8be06226403c088936af85c31af704a5eb3e480..72572e527342cb9dee7117b51e26dd896ab12c52 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -85,6 +85,10 @@ version 0.9.4 -- unreleased
 	 . Fix configdirectory error that forced you to use /etc/backup.d, thanks anarcat
 	 . When determining which backup actions to list, find now follows
            symlinks for $configdirectory
+	 . Stop checking helpers perms: both "make install" and distros packages
+	   install them with appropriate permissions, it's overzealous to check
+	   this at runtime, and is more complicated to do with current
+	   admingroup option.
 	dup.helper:
 	 . Fix: signing was enabled with symmetric encryption.
     changed cron permissions to 644
diff --git a/src/ninjahelper.in b/src/ninjahelper.in
index e9b4f9ee710c28e6be3ab670831db06a1f1998ab..26d28567e17b04a694e4d6e899642a8bf4c492ce 100755
--- a/src/ninjahelper.in
+++ b/src/ninjahelper.in
@@ -4,23 +4,6 @@
 ####################################################
 ## Functions
 
-function check_perms() {
-   local file=$1
-   local perms=`ls -ld $file`
-   group_w_perm=${perms:5:1}
-   world_w_perm=${perms:8:1}
-   if [ "$group_w_perm" == "w" -o "$world_w_perm" == "w" ]; then
-      echo $perms
-      echo "helper scripts must not be group or world writable! Dying on file $file"
-      exit
-   fi
-   if [ `ls -ld $file | awk '{print $3}'` != "root" ]; then
-      echo "helper scripts must be owned by root! Dying on file $file"
-      exit
-   fi
-}
-
-
 ##
 ## returns the next available file name given a file
 ## in the form @CFGDIR@/backup.d/10.sys
@@ -238,7 +221,6 @@ getconf scriptdirectory @datadir@
 # load all the helpers
 HELPERS=""
 for file in `find $scriptdirectory -follow -name '*.helper'`; do
-   check_perms $file
    . $file
    if [ $? != 0 ]; then
       echo "An error occurred while loading $file. Hit return to continue."