diff --git a/miscutils/crontab.c b/miscutils/crontab.c
index c71d914fc..411a18a50 100644
--- a/miscutils/crontab.c
+++ b/miscutils/crontab.c
@@ -165,8 +165,12 @@ int crontab_main(int argc UNUSED_PARAM, char **argv)
 			close(fd);
 			xlseek(src_fd, 0, SEEK_SET);
 		}
-		close_on_exec_on(src_fd); /* don't want editor to see this fd */
+		close(src_fd);
 		edit_file(pas, tmp_fname);
+		/* The src_fd needs to be reopened to handle editors that do
+		 * save the buffer as new file and rename it to tmp_fname (so
+		 * for example vim). */
+		src_fd = xopen3(tmp_fname, O_RDONLY, 0600);
 		/* fall through */
 
 	case 0: /* Replace (no -l, -e, or -r were given) */