diff --git a/package/network/services/dnsmasq/Makefile b/package/network/services/dnsmasq/Makefile
index 480a8a9f48..59beb98a56 100644
--- a/package/network/services/dnsmasq/Makefile
+++ b/package/network/services/dnsmasq/Makefile
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ include $(TOPDIR)/rules.mk
 
 PKG_NAME:=dnsmasq
 PKG_VERSION:=2.78
-PKG_RELEASE:=5
+PKG_RELEASE:=6
 
 PKG_SOURCE:=$(PKG_NAME)-$(PKG_VERSION).tar.xz
 PKG_SOURCE_URL:=http://thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/
diff --git a/package/network/services/dnsmasq/files/dnsmasq.init b/package/network/services/dnsmasq/files/dnsmasq.init
index 8c40f3b59a..b84f531ac0 100644
--- a/package/network/services/dnsmasq/files/dnsmasq.init
+++ b/package/network/services/dnsmasq/files/dnsmasq.init
@@ -294,7 +294,7 @@ dhcp_host_add() {
 
 	config_get_bool dns "$cfg" dns 0
 	[ "$dns" = "1" -a -n "$ip" -a -n "$name" ] && {
-		echo "$ip $name${DOMAIN:+.$DOMAIN}" >> $HOSTFILE
+		echo "$ip $name${DOMAIN:+.$DOMAIN}" >> $HOSTFILE_TMP
 	}
 
 	config_get mac "$cfg" mac
@@ -635,7 +635,7 @@ dhcp_domain_add() {
 		record="${record:+$record }$name"
 	done
 
-	echo "$ip $record" >> $HOSTFILE
+	echo "$ip $record" >> $HOSTFILE_TMP
 }
 
 dhcp_srv_add() {
@@ -741,6 +741,7 @@ dnsmasq_start()
 	CONFIGFILE="${BASECONFIGFILE}.${cfg}"
 	CONFIGFILE_TMP="${CONFIGFILE}.$$"
 	HOSTFILE="${BASEHOSTFILE}.${cfg}"
+	HOSTFILE_TMP="${HOSTFILE}.$$"
 	BASEDHCPSTAMPFILE_CFG="${BASEDHCPSTAMPFILE}.${cfg}"
 
 	# before we can call xappend
@@ -751,7 +752,7 @@ dnsmasq_start()
 	chown dnsmasq:dnsmasq /var/run/dnsmasq
 
 	echo "# auto-generated config file from /etc/config/dhcp" > $CONFIGFILE_TMP
-	echo "# auto-generated config file from /etc/config/dhcp" > $HOSTFILE
+	echo "# auto-generated config file from /etc/config/dhcp" > $HOSTFILE_TMP
 
 	local dnsmasqconffile="/etc/dnsmasq.${cfg}.conf"
 	if [ ! -r "$dnsmasqconffile" ]; then
@@ -998,6 +999,7 @@ dnsmasq_start()
 
 	echo >> $CONFIGFILE_TMP
 	mv -f $CONFIGFILE_TMP $CONFIGFILE
+	mv -f $HOSTFILE_TMP $HOSTFILE
 
 	[ "$resolvfile" = "/tmp/resolv.conf.auto" ] && {
 		rm -f /tmp/resolv.conf