diff --git a/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-chown b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-chown
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8076ed5e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-chown
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+chown ${{user}}:${{group}} ${{path}}
diff --git a/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-groupadd b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-groupadd
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..20f624a69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-groupadd
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# Adding ${{group}} as system group
+if ! getent group ${{group}} > /dev/null 2>&1
+then
+    echo "Creating system group: ${{group}}"
+	addgroup --system ${{group}}
+fi
diff --git a/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-useradd b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-useradd
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fc640de99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postinst-useradd
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Adding ${{user}}
+if ! id -u $1 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "Creating user ${{user}} in group ${{group}}"
+    useradd --system --no-create-home --gid ${{group}} --shell /bin/false ${{user}}
+fi
diff --git a/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postrm-purge b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postrm-purge
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..adc349efe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/postrm-purge
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Deleting user: ${{user}} and group: ${{group}}
+case "$1" in
+   remove|failed-upgrade|abort-upgrade|abort-install|disappear)
+   ;;
+   purge)
+        deluser --quiet --system ${{user}} > /dev/null || true
+        delgroup --quiet --system ${{group}} > /dev/null || true
+   ;;
+   upgrade)
+   ;;
+   *)
+      echo "postinst called with unknown argument \`\$1'" >&2
+   ;;
+esac
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/DebianPlugin.scala b/src/main/scala/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/DebianPlugin.scala
index a3485ad8b..76a0d367d 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/DebianPlugin.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/typesafe/sbt/packager/debian/DebianPlugin.scala
@@ -111,8 +111,8 @@ trait DebianPlugin extends Plugin with linux.LinuxPlugin {
           chmod(cfile, "0644")
           cfile
       },
-      debianExplodedPackage <<= (linuxPackageMappings, debianControlFile, debianMaintainerScripts, debianConffilesFile, debianControlScriptsReplacements, linuxPackageSymlinks, target)
-        map { (mappings, _, maintScripts, _, replacements, symlinks, t) =>
+      debianExplodedPackage <<= (linuxPackageMappings, debianControlFile, debianMaintainerScripts, debianConffilesFile, debianControlScriptsReplacements, linuxPackageSymlinks, target, streams)
+        map { (mappings, _, maintScripts, _, replacements, symlinks, t, streams) =>
 
           // Create files and directories
           mappings foreach {
@@ -142,6 +142,32 @@ trait DebianPlugin extends Plugin with linux.LinuxPlugin {
             filterAndFixPerms(targetFile, replacements, LinuxFileMetaData())
           }
 
+          // Check for non root user/group and append to postinst / postrm
+          // filter all root mappings, map to (user,group) key, group by, append everything
+          mappings filter {
+            case LinuxPackageMapping(_, LinuxFileMetaData("root", "root", _, _, _), _) => false
+            case _ => true
+          } map {
+            case LinuxPackageMapping(paths, LinuxFileMetaData(user, group, _, _, _), _) => (user, group) -> paths
+          } groupBy (_._1) foreach {
+            case ((user, group), pathList) =>
+              streams.log info ("Altering postrm/postinst files to add user " + user + " and group " + group)
+              val postinst = t / "DEBIAN" / "postinst"
+              val postrm = t / "DEBIAN" / "postrm"
+
+              val replacements = Seq("group" -> group, "user" -> user)
+              IO.append(postinst, TemplateWriter.generateScript(DebianPlugin.postinstGroupaddTemplateSource, replacements))
+              IO.append(postinst, TemplateWriter.generateScript(DebianPlugin.postinstUseraddTemplateSource, replacements))
+
+              // remove key, flatten it and then go through each file
+              pathList.map(_._2).flatten foreach {
+                case (_, target) =>
+                  val pathReplacements = replacements :+ ("path" -> target.toString)
+                  IO.append(postinst, TemplateWriter.generateScript(DebianPlugin.postinstChownTemplateSource, pathReplacements))
+              }
+
+              IO.append(postrm, TemplateWriter.generateScript(DebianPlugin.postrmPurgeTemplateSource, replacements))
+          }
           t
         },
       debianMD5sumsFile <<= (debianExplodedPackage, target) map {
@@ -180,3 +206,10 @@ trait DebianPlugin extends Plugin with linux.LinuxPlugin {
       }))
 
 }
+
+object DebianPlugin {
+  private def postinstGroupaddTemplateSource: java.net.URL = getClass.getResource("postinst-groupadd")
+  private def postinstUseraddTemplateSource: java.net.URL = getClass.getResource("postinst-useradd")
+  private def postinstChownTemplateSource: java.net.URL = getClass.getResource("postinst-chown")
+  private def postrmPurgeTemplateSource: java.net.URL = getClass.getResource("postrm-purge")
+}