diff --git a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
index 752d4e18a0..032700c76b 100644
--- a/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/nwfilter_conf.c
@@ -2778,13 +2778,6 @@ virNWFilterSaveXML(const char *configDir,
     if (!(configFile = virFileBuildPath(configDir, def->name, ".xml")))
         goto cleanup;
 
-    if (virFileMakePath(configDir) < 0) {
-        virReportSystemError(errno,
-                             _("cannot create config directory '%s'"),
-                             configDir);
-        goto cleanup;
-    }
-
     virUUIDFormat(def->uuid, uuidstr);
     ret = virXMLSaveFile(configFile,
                          virXMLPickShellSafeComment(def->name, uuidstr),
diff --git a/src/nwfilter/nwfilter_driver.c b/src/nwfilter/nwfilter_driver.c
index faa4fe8d25..5e620234ec 100644
--- a/src/nwfilter/nwfilter_driver.c
+++ b/src/nwfilter/nwfilter_driver.c
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 #include "nwfilter_driver.h"
 #include "nwfilter_gentech_driver.h"
 #include "configmake.h"
+#include "virfile.h"
 #include "virstring.h"
 #include "viraccessapicheck.h"
 
@@ -237,6 +238,12 @@ nwfilterStateInitialize(bool privileged,
 
     VIR_FREE(base);
 
+    if (virFileMakePathWithMode(driver->configDir, S_IRWXU) < 0) {
+        virReportSystemError(errno, _("cannot create config directory '%s'"),
+                             driver->configDir);
+        goto error;
+    }
+
     if (!(driver->nwfilters = virNWFilterObjListNew()))
         goto error;