diff --git a/src/shims/unix/fs.rs b/src/shims/unix/fs.rs
index ce2b0143b5..7a54cde7e1 100644
--- a/src/shims/unix/fs.rs
+++ b/src/shims/unix/fs.rs
@@ -585,8 +585,13 @@ pub trait EvalContextExt<'mir, 'tcx: 'mir>: crate::MiriInterpCxExt<'mir, 'tcx> {
                 );
             };
 
-            if mode != 0o666 {
-                throw_unsup_format!("non-default mode 0o{:o} is not supported", mode);
+            // currently we only support that the owner must always have
+            // read-write permissions and that none of the owner, group
+            // and other may have execute permissions.
+            let owner_has_read_write_permissions = mode & 0o600 == 0o600;
+            let has_any_execute_permissions = mode & 0o111 != 0;
+            if !owner_has_read_write_permissions || has_any_execute_permissions {
+                throw_unsup_format!("mode 0o{:o} is not supported", mode);
             }
 
             mirror |= o_creat;
diff --git a/test_dependencies/Cargo.lock b/test_dependencies/Cargo.lock
index c728e7c077..46d198e806 100644
--- a/test_dependencies/Cargo.lock
+++ b/test_dependencies/Cargo.lock
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@ version = "1.0.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "baf1de4339761588bc0619e3cbc0120ee582ebb74b53b4efbf79117bd2da40fd"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "fastrand"
+version = "1.8.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a7a407cfaa3385c4ae6b23e84623d48c2798d06e3e6a1878f7f59f17b3f86499"
+dependencies = [
+ "instant",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "getrandom"
 version = "0.1.16"
@@ -57,6 +66,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "libc",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "instant"
+version = "0.1.12"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "7a5bbe824c507c5da5956355e86a746d82e0e1464f65d862cc5e71da70e94b2c"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "libc"
 version = "0.2.137"
@@ -110,6 +128,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "num_cpus",
  "page_size",
  "rand",
+ "tempfile",
  "tokio",
 ]
 
@@ -225,6 +244,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "bitflags",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "remove_dir_all"
+version = "0.5.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "3acd125665422973a33ac9d3dd2df85edad0f4ae9b00dafb1a05e43a9f5ef8e7"
+dependencies = [
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "scopeguard"
 version = "1.1.0"
@@ -267,6 +295,20 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-ident",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "tempfile"
+version = "3.3.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5cdb1ef4eaeeaddc8fbd371e5017057064af0911902ef36b39801f67cc6d79e4"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if",
+ "fastrand",
+ "libc",
+ "redox_syscall",
+ "remove_dir_all",
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "tokio"
 version = "1.22.0"
diff --git a/test_dependencies/Cargo.toml b/test_dependencies/Cargo.toml
index 3a80e8c964..052ab7fd44 100644
--- a/test_dependencies/Cargo.toml
+++ b/test_dependencies/Cargo.toml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ tokio = { version = "1.0", features = ["full"] }
 libc = "0.2"
 page_size = "0.5"
 num_cpus = "1.10.1"
+tempfile = "3"
 
 getrandom_1 = { package = "getrandom", version = "0.1" }
 getrandom = { version = "0.2" }
diff --git a/tests/pass-dep/tempfile.rs b/tests/pass-dep/tempfile.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..681dc6d015
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/pass-dep/tempfile.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+//@ignore-target-windows: no libc on Windows
+//@compile-flags: -Zmiri-disable-isolation
+
+use std::ffi::{CStr, CString};
+use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+/// Test that the [`tempfile`] crate is compatible with miri.
+fn main() {
+    // test_tempfile(); // does not work when host!=target
+    test_tempfile_in();
+}
+
+fn tmp() -> PathBuf {
+    let path = std::env::var("MIRI_TEMP")
+        .unwrap_or_else(|_| std::env::temp_dir().into_os_string().into_string().unwrap());
+    // These are host paths. We need to convert them to the target.
+    let path = CString::new(path).unwrap();
+    let mut out = Vec::with_capacity(1024);
+
+    unsafe {
+        extern "Rust" {
+            fn miri_host_to_target_path(path: *const i8, out: *mut i8, out_size: usize) -> usize;
+        }
+        let ret = miri_host_to_target_path(path.as_ptr(), out.as_mut_ptr(), out.capacity());
+        assert_eq!(ret, 0);
+        let out = CStr::from_ptr(out.as_ptr()).to_str().unwrap();
+        PathBuf::from(out)
+    }
+}
+
+// does not work when host!=target:
+// fn test_tempfile() {
+//     tempfile::tempfile().unwrap();
+// }
+
+fn test_tempfile_in() {
+    let dir_path = tmp();
+    tempfile::tempfile_in(dir_path).unwrap();
+}