diff --git a/docker/docker-py3-kms-minimal/Dockerfile b/docker/docker-py3-kms-minimal/Dockerfile
index 4fb1f36..64204e5 100644
--- a/docker/docker-py3-kms-minimal/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/docker-py3-kms-minimal/Dockerfile
@@ -36,11 +36,10 @@ COPY docker/start.py /usr/bin/start.py
 RUN chmod 555 /usr/bin/entrypoint.py /usr/bin/healthcheck.py /usr/bin/start.py
 
 # Additional permission hardening: All files read-only for the executing user
-RUN chown root: -R /home/py-kms && \
-    chmod 444 -R /home/py-kms && \
-    chown py-kms: /home/py-kms && \
-    chmod 700 /home/py-kms && \
-    find /home/py-kms -type d -print -exec chmod +x {} ';'
+RUN find /home/py-kms -type f -print -exec chmod 444 {} ';' && \
+    find /home/py-kms -type d -print -exec chmod 555 {} ';' && \
+    chown root: -R /home/py-kms && \
+    chown py-kms: /home/py-kms
 
 WORKDIR /home/py-kms
 
diff --git a/docker/docker-py3-kms/Dockerfile b/docker/docker-py3-kms/Dockerfile
index 3c9846d..836fe74 100644
--- a/docker/docker-py3-kms/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/docker-py3-kms/Dockerfile
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ RUN apk add --no-cache --update \
   tzdata \
   shadow \
   && pip3 install --break-system-packages --no-cache-dir -r /home/py-kms/requirements.txt \
-  && mkdir /db/ \
+  && mkdir /db/ /home/py-kms/db \
   && adduser -S py-kms -G users -s /bin/bash \
   && chown py-kms:users /home/py-kms \
   # Fix undefined timezone, in case the user did not mount the /etc/localtime
@@ -41,12 +41,13 @@ COPY docker/healthcheck.py /usr/bin/healthcheck.py
 COPY docker/start.py /usr/bin/start.py
 RUN chmod 555 /usr/bin/entrypoint.py /usr/bin/healthcheck.py /usr/bin/start.py
 
-# Additional permission hardening: All files read-only for the executing user
-RUN chown root: -R /home/py-kms && \
-    chmod 444 -R /home/py-kms && \
+# Additional permission hardening: keep application files read-only, but preserve
+# a dedicated writable database directory for WebUI/SQLite at runtime.
+RUN find /home/py-kms -type f -print -exec chmod 444 {} ';' && \
+    find /home/py-kms -type d -print -exec chmod 555 {} ';' && \
+    chown root: -R /home/py-kms && \
     chown py-kms: /home/py-kms && \
-    chmod 700 /home/py-kms && \
-    find /home/py-kms -type d -print -exec chmod +x {} ';'
+    chmod 1777 /home/py-kms/db
 
 # Web-interface specifics
 COPY LICENSE /LICENSE
diff --git a/docker/entrypoint.py b/docker/entrypoint.py
index b564966..e920110 100755
--- a/docker/entrypoint.py
+++ b/docker/entrypoint.py
@@ -15,15 +15,20 @@ PYTHON3 = '/usr/bin/python3'
 dbPath = os.path.join(os.sep, 'home', 'py-kms', 'db') # Do not include the database file name, as we must correct the folder permissions (the db file is recursively reachable)
 
 def change_uid_grp(logger):
-  if os.geteuid() != 0:
-    logger.info(f'not root user, cannot change uid/gid.')
-    return None
   user_db_entries = pwd.getpwnam("py-kms")
   user_grp_db_entries = grp.getgrnam("users")
-  uid = int(user_db_entries.pw_uid)
-  gid = int(user_grp_db_entries.gr_gid)
-  new_gid = int(os.getenv('GID', str(gid)))
-  new_uid = int(os.getenv('UID', str(uid)))
+  now_uid = os.geteuid() # as what are we running effectively right now?
+  now_gid = os.getegid()
+  ebd_uid = int(user_db_entries.pw_uid) # what was compiled (embedded) into the image?
+  ebd_gid = int(user_grp_db_entries.gr_gid)
+  new_gid = int(os.getenv('GID', str(ebd_gid))) # what is desired by the user at runtime?
+  new_uid = int(os.getenv('UID', str(ebd_uid)))
+  if now_uid == new_uid and now_gid == new_gid:
+    logger.info(f'UID/GID already set to {new_uid}:{new_gid}')
+    return None
+  if now_uid != 0:
+    logger.warning(f'Not root user (UID is {now_uid}), cannot change UID/GID to {new_uid}:{new_gid}!')
+    return None
   os.chown("/home/py-kms", new_uid, new_gid)
   os.chmod("/home/py-kms", 0o700)
   if os.path.isdir(dbPath):
@@ -50,9 +55,8 @@ def change_uid_grp(logger):
     os.chmod(os.environ['LOGFILE'], 0o777)
     logger.error(str(subprocess.check_output(['ls', '-la', os.environ['LOGFILE']])))
   # Drop actual permissions
-  logger.info(f"Setting gid to {new_gid}")
+  logger.info(f"Setting UID/GID to {new_uid}:{new_gid}")
   os.setgid(new_gid)
-  logger.info(f"Setting uid to {new_uid}")
   os.setuid(new_uid)
 
 def change_tz(logger):
@@ -75,7 +79,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
   streamhandler.setFormatter(formatter)
   loggersrv.addHandler(streamhandler)
   loggersrv.info("Log level: %s" % log_level)
-  loggersrv.debug("user id: %s" % os.getuid())
+  loggersrv.debug("Running as UID/GID %s:%s" % (os.geteuid(), os.getegid()))
 
   change_tz(loggersrv)
   childProcess = subprocess.Popen(PYTHON3 + " -u /usr/bin/start.py", preexec_fn=change_uid_grp(loggersrv), shell=True)
diff --git a/docker/start.py b/docker/start.py
index 5b192fe..4feceab 100755
--- a/docker/start.py
+++ b/docker/start.py
@@ -72,9 +72,12 @@ def start_kms(logger):
     pass
   except KeyboardInterrupt:
     pass
+  logger.info("Shutting down...")
 
   if pykms_webui_process:
+    logger.debug("Terminating webui process...")
     pykms_webui_process.terminate()
+  logger.debug("Terminating KMS process...")
   pykms_process.terminate()
 
 
@@ -90,6 +93,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
   formatter = logging.Formatter(fmt='\x1b[94m%(asctime)s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s', datefmt='%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S')
   streamhandler.setFormatter(formatter)
   loggersrv.addHandler(streamhandler)
-  loggersrv.debug("user id: %s" % os.getuid())
+  loggersrv.info("Log level: %s" % log_level)
+  loggersrv.debug("Running as UID/GID %s:%s" % (os.geteuid(), os.getegid()))
 
   start_kms(loggersrv)