diff --git a/internal/manifest/commit_deployment.go b/internal/manifest/commit_deployment.go
index b7edc25ba9..80e58e3fb1 100644
--- a/internal/manifest/commit_deployment.go
+++ b/internal/manifest/commit_deployment.go
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ func (p *OSTreeDeployment) serialize() osbuild.Pipeline {
 		Paths: []osbuild.MkdirStagePath{
 			{
 				Path: "/boot/efi",
-				Mode: os.FileMode(0700),
+				Mode: common.ToPtr(os.FileMode(0700)),
 			},
 		},
 	}))
diff --git a/internal/osbuild/mkdir_stage.go b/internal/osbuild/mkdir_stage.go
index aa478a083e..f77df6b788 100644
--- a/internal/osbuild/mkdir_stage.go
+++ b/internal/osbuild/mkdir_stage.go
@@ -8,10 +8,10 @@ type MkdirStageOptions struct {
 }
 
 type MkdirStagePath struct {
-	Path    string      `json:"path"`
-	Mode    os.FileMode `json:"mode,omitempty"`     // If not specified, the default mode is 0777
-	Parents bool        `json:"parents,omitempty"`  // If true, create parent directories as needed
-	ExistOk bool        `json:"exist_ok,omitempty"` // If true, do not fail if the target directory already exists
+	Path    string       `json:"path"`
+	Mode    *os.FileMode `json:"mode,omitempty"`     // If not specified, the default mode is 0777
+	Parents bool         `json:"parents,omitempty"`  // If true, create parent directories as needed
+	ExistOk bool         `json:"exist_ok,omitempty"` // If true, do not fail if the target directory already exists
 }
 
 func (MkdirStageOptions) isStageOptions() {}