diff --git a/Documentation/cloud-config.md b/Documentation/cloud-config.md
index fa2d969..e36778c 100644
--- a/Documentation/cloud-config.md
+++ b/Documentation/cloud-config.md
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ Each item in the list may have the following keys:
 
 - **path**: Absolute location on disk where contents should be written
 - **content**: Data to write at the provided `path`
-- **permissions**: String representing file permissions in octal notation (i.e. '0644')
+- **permissions**: Integer representing file permissions, typically in octal notation (i.e. 0644)
 - **owner**: User and group that should own the file written to disk. This is equivalent to the `<user>:<group>` argument to `chown <user>:<group> <path>`.
 
 Explicitly not implemented is the **encoding** attribute.
diff --git a/config/config_test.go b/config/config_test.go
index dbcbc12..7d46003 100644
--- a/config/config_test.go
+++ b/config/config_test.go
@@ -276,6 +276,40 @@ Address=10.209.171.177/19
 	if cfg.Coreos.Update.RebootStrategy != "reboot" {
 		t.Errorf("Failed to parse locksmith strategy")
 	}
+
+	contents = `
+coreos:
+write_files:
+  - path: /home/me/notes
+    permissions: 0744
+`
+	cfg, err = NewCloudConfig(contents)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Encountered unexpected error :%v", err)
+	}
+
+	if len(cfg.WriteFiles) != 1 {
+		t.Error("Failed to parse correct number of write_files")
+	} else {
+		wf := cfg.WriteFiles[0]
+		if wf.Content != "" {
+			t.Errorf("WriteFile has incorrect contents '%s'", wf.Content)
+		}
+		if wf.Encoding != "" {
+			t.Errorf("WriteFile has incorrect encoding %s", wf.Encoding)
+		}
+		// Verify that the normalization of the config converted 0744 to its decimal
+		// representation, 484.
+		if wf.RawFilePermissions != "484" {
+			t.Errorf("WriteFile has incorrect permissions %s", wf.RawFilePermissions)
+		}
+		if wf.Path != "/home/me/notes" {
+			t.Errorf("WriteFile has incorrect path %s", wf.Path)
+		}
+		if wf.Owner != "" {
+			t.Errorf("WriteFile has incorrect owner %s", wf.Owner)
+		}
+	}
 }
 
 // Assert that our interface conversion doesn't panic
diff --git a/system/file.go b/system/file.go
index bfe2b15..f56ab10 100644
--- a/system/file.go
+++ b/system/file.go
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 package system
 
 import (
-	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
@@ -39,10 +38,10 @@ func (f *File) Permissions() (os.FileMode, error) {
 		return os.FileMode(0644), nil
 	}
 
-	// Parse string representation of file mode as octal
-	perm, err := strconv.ParseInt(f.RawFilePermissions, 8, 32)
+	// Parse string representation of file mode as integer
+	perm, err := strconv.ParseInt(f.RawFilePermissions, 0, 32)
 	if err != nil {
-		return 0, errors.New("Unable to parse file permissions as octal integer")
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf("Unable to parse file permissions %q as integer", f.RawFilePermissions)
 	}
 	return os.FileMode(perm), nil
 }
diff --git a/system/file_test.go b/system/file_test.go
index 707aba9..f520649 100644
--- a/system/file_test.go
+++ b/system/file_test.go
@@ -85,6 +85,38 @@ func TestWriteFileInvalidPermission(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestDecimalFilePermissions(t *testing.T) {
+	dir, err := ioutil.TempDir(os.TempDir(), "coreos-cloudinit-")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Unable to create tempdir: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer os.RemoveAll(dir)
+
+	fn := "foo"
+	fullPath := path.Join(dir, fn)
+
+	wf := File{config.File{
+		Path:               fn,
+		RawFilePermissions: "484", // Decimal representation of 0744
+	}}
+
+	path, err := WriteFile(&wf, dir)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Processing of WriteFile failed: %v", err)
+	} else if path != fullPath {
+		t.Fatalf("WriteFile returned bad path: want %s, got %s", fullPath, path)
+	}
+
+	fi, err := os.Stat(fullPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Unable to stat file: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if fi.Mode() != os.FileMode(0744) {
+		t.Errorf("File has incorrect mode: %v", fi.Mode())
+	}
+}
+
 func TestWriteFilePermissions(t *testing.T) {
 	dir, err := ioutil.TempDir(os.TempDir(), "coreos-cloudinit-")
 	if err != nil {