diff --git a/include/libbb.h b/include/libbb.h
index 1ec8d2d3b..6727c22b2 100644
--- a/include/libbb.h
+++ b/include/libbb.h
@@ -1607,7 +1607,7 @@ char *bb_ask_noecho_stdin(const char *prompt) FAST_FUNC;
 int bb_ask_y_confirmation_FILE(FILE *fp) FAST_FUNC;
 int bb_ask_y_confirmation(void) FAST_FUNC;
 
-/* Returns -1 if input is invalid. current_mode is a base for e.g. "u+rw" */
+/* Returns -1 if input is invalid. cur_mode is a base for e.g. "u+rw" */
 int bb_parse_mode(const char* s, unsigned cur_mode) FAST_FUNC;
 
 /*
diff --git a/libbb/parse_mode.c b/libbb/parse_mode.c
index dc65860f6..1d238e1e0 100644
--- a/libbb/parse_mode.c
+++ b/libbb/parse_mode.c
@@ -16,13 +16,14 @@
 
 int FAST_FUNC bb_parse_mode(const char *s, unsigned current_mode)
 {
-	static const mode_t who_mask[] = {
+/* should be mode_t really, but in all Unixes these constants fit into uint16 */
+	static const uint16_t who_mask[] ALIGN2 = {
 		S_ISUID | S_ISGID | S_ISVTX | S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO, /* a */
 		S_ISUID | S_IRWXU,           /* u */
 		S_ISGID | S_IRWXG,           /* g */
 		S_IRWXO                      /* o */
 	};
-	static const mode_t perm_mask[] = {
+	static const uint16_t perm_mask[] ALIGN2 = {
 		S_IRUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH, /* r */
 		S_IWUSR | S_IWGRP | S_IWOTH, /* w */
 		S_IXUSR | S_IXGRP | S_IXOTH, /* x */