diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
index 40353673e..757f9ba37 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2010-11-18  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
+
+	* fhandler_tty.cc (fhandler_tty_slave::fchown): Initialize mode to 0.
+
 2010-11-15  Corinna Vinschen  <corinna@vinschen.de>
 
 	* posix.sgml: Move llround and llroundf to implemented SUSv4 functions.
diff --git a/winsup/cygwin/fhandler_tty.cc b/winsup/cygwin/fhandler_tty.cc
index 4ef3457e8..23a07d0b4 100644
--- a/winsup/cygwin/fhandler_tty.cc
+++ b/winsup/cygwin/fhandler_tty.cc
@@ -1306,7 +1306,7 @@ fhandler_tty_slave::fchown (__uid32_t uid, __gid32_t gid)
 {
   int ret = -1;
   bool to_close = false;
-  mode_t mode;
+  mode_t mode = 0;
   __uid32_t o_uid;
   __gid32_t o_gid;
   security_descriptor sd;