diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index aca5fbed6..aa067e4a6 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ ADD conf/init/copy_syslog_config.sh /etc/my_init.d/
 ADD conf/init/create_certs.sh /etc/my_init.d/
 ADD conf/init/runmigration.sh /etc/my_init.d/
 ADD conf/init/syslog-ng.conf /etc/syslog-ng/
+ADD conf/init/logrotate.conf /etc/logrotate.conf # remove after phusion/baseimage-docker#338 is fixed
 ADD conf/init/zz_boot.sh /etc/my_init.d/
 ADD conf/init/service/ /etc/service/
 RUN rm -rf /etc/service/syslog-forwarder
diff --git a/conf/init/logrotate.conf b/conf/init/logrotate.conf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bdd2033bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conf/init/logrotate.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#
+# This file exists because of a bug in phusion/baseimage:0.9.19 where the su
+# directive below is configured to use the nonexistant syslog user.
+#
+
+
+# see "man logrotate" for details
+# rotate log files weekly
+weekly
+
+# use the syslog group by default, since this is the owning group
+# of /var/log/syslog.
+su root root
+
+# keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
+rotate 4
+
+# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
+create
+
+# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
+#compress
+
+# packages drop log rotation information into this directory
+include /etc/logrotate.d
+
+# no packages own wtmp, or btmp -- we'll rotate them here
+/var/log/wtmp {
+    missingok
+    monthly
+    create 0664 root utmp
+    rotate 1
+}
+
+/var/log/btmp {
+    missingok
+    monthly
+    create 0660 root utmp
+    rotate 1
+}
+
+# system-specific logs may be configured here