diff --git a/guest/microdroid_manager/Android.bp b/guest/microdroid_manager/Android.bp
index c4b6423..82e26b7 100644
--- a/guest/microdroid_manager/Android.bp
+++ b/guest/microdroid_manager/Android.bp
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@
         "libvsock",
         "librand",
         "libzeroize",
+        "libsafe_ownedfd",
     ],
     init_rc: ["microdroid_manager.rc"],
     multilib: {
diff --git a/guest/microdroid_manager/src/main.rs b/guest/microdroid_manager/src/main.rs
index a27d9b0..8b676b8 100644
--- a/guest/microdroid_manager/src/main.rs
+++ b/guest/microdroid_manager/src/main.rs
@@ -200,13 +200,7 @@
     );
     info!("started.");
 
-    // SAFETY: This is the only place we take the ownership of the fd of the vm payload service.
-    //
-    // To ensure that the CLOEXEC flag is set on the file descriptor as early as possible,
-    // it is necessary to fetch the socket corresponding to vm_payload_service at the
-    // very beginning, as android_get_control_socket() sets the CLOEXEC flag on the file
-    // descriptor.
-    let vm_payload_service_fd = unsafe { prepare_vm_payload_service_socket()? };
+    let vm_payload_service_fd = prepare_vm_payload_service_socket()?;
 
     load_crashkernel_if_supported().context("Failed to load crashkernel")?;
 
@@ -488,12 +482,7 @@
 }
 
 /// Prepares a socket file descriptor for the vm payload service.
-///
-/// # Safety
-///
-/// The caller must ensure that this function is the only place that claims ownership
-/// of the file descriptor and it is called only once.
-unsafe fn prepare_vm_payload_service_socket() -> Result<OwnedFd> {
+fn prepare_vm_payload_service_socket() -> Result<OwnedFd> {
     let raw_fd = android_get_control_socket(VM_PAYLOAD_SERVICE_SOCKET_NAME)?;
     Ok(take_fd_ownership(raw_fd)?)
 }