diff --git a/src/exec.c b/src/exec.c
index eaeda37..301d2fa 100644
--- a/src/exec.c
+++ b/src/exec.c
@@ -590,6 +590,11 @@ out:
 // do the exec, no return
 void hyper_exec_process(struct hyper_exec *exec)
 {
+	if (sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &orig_mask, NULL) < 0) {
+		perror("sigprocmask restore mask failed");
+		goto exit;
+	}
+
 	if (exec->workdir && chdir(exec->workdir) < 0) {
 		perror("change work directory failed");
 		goto exit;
diff --git a/src/hyper.h b/src/hyper.h
index 86f1b69..8448670 100644
--- a/src/hyper.h
+++ b/src/hyper.h
@@ -126,4 +126,5 @@ void hyper_cleanup_pod(struct hyper_pod *pod);
 
 extern struct hyper_pod global_pod;
 extern struct hyper_ctl ctl;
+extern sigset_t orig_mask;
 #endif
diff --git a/src/init.c b/src/init.c
index 906a35d..d0ede87 100644
--- a/src/init.c
+++ b/src/init.c
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ struct hyper_pod global_pod = {
 
 struct hyper_ctl ctl;
 
+sigset_t orig_mask;
+
 static int hyper_handle_exit(struct hyper_pod *pod);
 static int hyper_stop_pod(struct hyper_pod *pod);
 
@@ -1120,6 +1122,8 @@ static int hyper_loop(void)
 		perror("sigprocmask SIGCHLD failed");
 		return -1;
 	}
+	// need original mask to restore sigmask of child processes
+	orig_mask = omask;
 	sigdelset(&omask, SIGCHLD);
 	signal(SIGCHLD, hyper_init_sigchld);