diff --git a/nix/nixosModules.nix b/nix/nixosModules.nix
index fbff28e18b62c..e551b261d5b5e 100644
--- a/nix/nixosModules.nix
+++ b/nix/nixosModules.nix
@@ -115,9 +115,13 @@
       chown "$HERMES_UID:$HERMES_GID" "$TARGET_HOME"
       chmod 0750 "$TARGET_HOME"
 
-      # Ensure HERMES_HOME is owned by the target user
+      # Ensure HERMES_HOME is owned by the target user.
+      # Use find instead of chown -R: chown strips the setgid bit (kernel
+      # behavior), destroying the 2770 permissions the NixOS activation
+      # script sets for group access by hostUsers.  Only touch files with
+      # wrong ownership so correctly-owned dirs keep their permission bits.
       if [ -n "''${HERMES_HOME:-}" ] && [ -d "$HERMES_HOME" ]; then
-        chown -R "$HERMES_UID:$HERMES_GID" "$HERMES_HOME"
+        find "$HERMES_HOME" \! -user "$HERMES_UID" -exec chown "$HERMES_UID:$HERMES_GID" {} +
       fi
 
       # ── Provision apt packages (first boot only, cached in writable layer) ──