diff --git a/rpm/build/SOURCES/jenkins.sysconfig.in b/rpm/build/SOURCES/jenkins.sysconfig.in
index 76985982..bda2599e 100644
--- a/rpm/build/SOURCES/jenkins.sysconfig.in
+++ b/rpm/build/SOURCES/jenkins.sysconfig.in
@@ -29,6 +29,16 @@ JENKINS_JAVA_CMD=""
 JENKINS_USER="@@ARTIFACTNAME@@"
 
 ## Type:        string
+## Default: "false"
+## ServiceRestart: jenkins
+#
+# Whether to skip potentially long-running chown at the
+# $JENKINS_HOME location. Do not enable this, "true", unless
+# you know what you're doing. See JENKINS-23273.
+#
+#JENKINS_INSTALL_SKIP_CHOWN="false"
+
+## Type: string
 ## Default:     "-Djava.awt.headless=true"
 ## ServiceRestart: @@ARTIFACTNAME@@
 #
diff --git a/rpm/build/SPECS/jenkins.spec b/rpm/build/SPECS/jenkins.spec
index 08ff1326..07ab167e 100644
--- a/rpm/build/SPECS/jenkins.spec
+++ b/rpm/build/SPECS/jenkins.spec
@@ -110,8 +110,11 @@ fi
 
 # Ensure the right ownership on files
 . /etc/sysconfig/%{name}
-chown -R ${JENKINS_USER:-%{name}} /var/log/%{name}
-chown -R ${JENKINS_USER:-%{name}} ${JENKINS_HOME:-%{workdir}}
+if test ( "x"$JENKINS_INSTALL_SKIP_CHOWN != "xtrue" ); then
+   chown -R ${JENKINS_USER:-%{name}} /var/cache/%{name}
+   chown -R ${JENKINS_USER:-%{name}} /var/log/%{name}
+   chown -R ${JENKINS_USER:-%{name}} ${JENKINS_HOME:-%{workdir}}
+fi
 
 %preun
 if [ "$1" = 0 ] ; then