diff --git a/test/helpers.bash b/test/helpers.bash
index c56fc5bc..6a212c72 100644
--- a/test/helpers.bash
+++ b/test/helpers.bash
@@ -204,7 +204,17 @@ function zot_teardown {
 function test_copy_buffer_size() {
    local buffer_size=$1
    local file_type=$2
-   cd "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR"
+   
+   # create a temporary dir
+   local tmpdir=$(mktemp -d "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR")
+   cd "$tmpdir"
+   if [ "$PRIVILEGE_LEVEL" = "priv" ]; then
+     return
+   fi
+
+   "${ROOT_DIR}/stacker" unpriv-setup
+   chown -R $SUDO_USER:$SUDO_USER .
+
    mkdir folder1
    truncate -s $buffer_size folder1/file1
    if [ $file_type = "tar" ]
@@ -245,4 +255,5 @@ EOF
   stacker clean
   rm -rf folder1
   cd "$ROOT_DIR"
+  rm -rf "tmpdir"
 }