diff --git a/config/config.sample.php b/config/config.sample.php
index 288ea7e4a9b2f..226941367d102 100644
--- a/config/config.sample.php
+++ b/config/config.sample.php
@@ -940,6 +940,15 @@
  */
 'config_is_read_only' => false,
 
+/**
+ * In certain environments it is desired to set the config.php owner to
+ * something else than the user that is running the php process.
+ * In that case in order to determine the user that the php process uses,
+ * you can overwrite the user with this config flag for console.php and cron.php
+ * Defaults to ``''`` (empty string)
+ */
+'php.user' => '',
+
 /**
  * Logging
  */
diff --git a/console.php b/console.php
index 693a2618a8886..b2bc50c13d063 100644
--- a/console.php
+++ b/console.php
@@ -42,13 +42,20 @@ function exceptionHandler($exception) {
 	}
 
 	$user = posix_getuid();
+	$userNameArray = posix_getpwuid($user);
+	$username = null;
+	if ($userNameArray !== false) {
+		$userName = $userNameArray['name'];
+	}
 	$configUser = fileowner(OC::$configDir . 'config.php');
-	if ($user !== $configUser) {
+	$configuredUser = $config->getSystemValueString('php.user', '');
+	if ($user !== $configUser && $username !== null && $userName !== $configuredUser) {
 		echo "Console has to be executed with the user that owns the file config/config.php" . PHP_EOL;
 		echo "Current user id: " . $user . PHP_EOL;
 		echo "Owner id of config.php: " . $configUser . PHP_EOL;
 		echo "Try adding 'sudo -u #" . $configUser . "' to the beginning of the command (without the single quotes)" . PHP_EOL;
 		echo "If running with 'docker exec' try adding the option '-u " . $configUser . "' to the docker command (without the single quotes)" . PHP_EOL;
+		echo "Another option is to configure 'php.user' in config.php which will overwrite this check.";
 		exit(1);
 	}
 
diff --git a/cron.php b/cron.php
index be743664db2ba..d36ab67c650cc 100644
--- a/cron.php
+++ b/cron.php
@@ -130,11 +130,18 @@
 		}
 
 		$user = posix_getuid();
+		$userNameArray = posix_getpwuid($user);
+		$username = null;
+		if ($userNameArray !== false) {
+			$userName = $userNameArray['name'];
+		}
 		$configUser = fileowner(OC::$configDir . 'config.php');
-		if ($user !== $configUser) {
+		$configuredUser = $config->getSystemValueString('php.user', '');
+		if ($user !== $configUser && $username !== null && $userName !== $configuredUser) {
 			echo "Console has to be executed with the user that owns the file config/config.php" . PHP_EOL;
 			echo "Current user id: " . $user . PHP_EOL;
 			echo "Owner id of config.php: " . $configUser . PHP_EOL;
+			echo "Another option is to configure 'php.user' in config.php which will overwrite this check.";
 			exit(1);
 		}