diff --git a/shellinabox.spec b/shellinabox.spec
index 45af159..58c5121 100644
--- a/shellinabox.spec
+++ b/shellinabox.spec
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Name:           shellinabox
 Version:        2.20
-Release:        27%{?dist}
+Release:        24%{?dist}
 Summary:        Web based AJAX terminal emulator
 # Automatically converted from old format: GPLv2 - review is highly recommended.
 License:        GPL-2.0-only
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ BuildRequires:  openssl-devel
 BuildRequires:  zlib-devel
 
 Requires:       openssl
+Requires(pre):  shadow-utils
 
 %if 0%{?fedora} || 0%{?rhel} >= 7
 BuildRequires:      systemd
@@ -52,11 +53,6 @@ browser plugins.
 %patch -P1 -p1
 %patch -P2 -p1
 
-# Create a sysusers.d config file
-cat >shellinabox.sysusers.conf <<EOF
-u shellinabox - 'Shellinabox' %{_sharedstatedir}/shellinabox -
-EOF
-
 %build
 autoreconf -vif
 %configure --disable-runtime-loading
@@ -86,9 +82,12 @@ install -p -m 755 -D %{SOURCE3} %{buildroot}%{_initrddir}/shellinaboxd
 
 %endif
 
-install -m0644 -D shellinabox.sysusers.conf %{buildroot}%{_sysusersdir}/shellinabox.conf
-
 %pre
+getent group %username >/dev/null || groupadd -r %username &>/dev/null || :
+getent passwd %username >/dev/null || useradd -r -s /sbin/nologin \
+    -d %{_sharedstatedir}/shellinabox -M -c 'Shellinabox' -g %username %username &>/dev/null || :
+exit 0
+
 %if 0%{?fedora} || 0%{?rhel} >= 7
 
 %post
@@ -135,18 +134,8 @@ fi
 %{_initrddir}/shellinaboxd
 %endif
 %attr(750,%{username},%{username}) %{_sharedstatedir}/%{name}
-%{_sysusersdir}/shellinabox.conf
 
 %changelog
-* Fri Jul 25 2025 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 2.20-27
-- Rebuilt for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_43_Mass_Rebuild
-
-* Tue Feb 11 2025 Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek <zbyszek@in.waw.pl> - 2.20-26
-- Add sysusers.d config file to allow rpm to create users/groups automatically
-
-* Sun Jan 19 2025 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 2.20-25
-- Rebuilt for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_42_Mass_Rebuild
-
 * Mon Jul 29 2024 Miroslav Suchý <msuchy@redhat.com> - 2.20-24
 - convert license to SPDX