diff --git a/src/applications/daemon/management/PhabricatorDaemonManagementWorkflow.php b/src/applications/daemon/management/PhabricatorDaemonManagementWorkflow.php
--- a/src/applications/daemon/management/PhabricatorDaemonManagementWorkflow.php
+++ b/src/applications/daemon/management/PhabricatorDaemonManagementWorkflow.php
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 abstract class PhabricatorDaemonManagementWorkflow
   extends PhabricatorManagementWorkflow {
 
+  private $runDaemonsAsUser = null;
+
   protected final function loadAvailableDaemonClasses() {
     $loader = new PhutilSymbolLoader();
     return $loader
@@ -173,6 +175,13 @@
       implode(' ', $flags),
       implode(' ', $argv));
 
+    if ($this->runDaemonsAsUser) {
+      $command = csprintf(
+        'su %C -c "%C"',
+        $this->runDaemonsAsUser,
+        $command);
+    }
+
     $phabricator_root = dirname(phutil_get_library_root('phabricator'));
     $daemon_script_dir = $phabricator_root.'/scripts/daemon/';
 
@@ -265,6 +274,26 @@
         pht('Freed %s task lease(s).', new PhutilNumber($count)));
     }
 
+    // Check if the script is started as the correct user
+    $phd_user = PhabricatorEnv::getEnvConfig('phd.user');
+    $current_user = posix_getpwuid(posix_geteuid());
+    $current_user = $current_user['name'];
+    if ($current_user == 'root') {
+      if ($phd_user) {
+        $this->runDaemonsAsUser = $phd_user;
+        $console->writeOut(pht('Starting daemons as %s', $phd_user)."\n");
+      } else {
+        $console->writeErr(pht(
+            'Running daemons as root is not recommended. "'.
+            'Please configure phd.user')."\n");
+      }
+    } else if ($phd_user && $phd_user != $current_user) {
+      $console->writeErr(pht(
+          'Daemons are configured to run as %s. '.
+          'Cannot start as user %s', $phd_user, $current_user)."\n");
+      exit(1);
+    }
+
     $daemons = array(
       array('PhabricatorRepositoryPullLocalDaemon', array()),
       array('PhabricatorGarbageCollectorDaemon', array()),