diff --git a/src/Mage/Runtime/Runtime.php b/src/Mage/Runtime/Runtime.php
index cab246d..8ec0036 100644
--- a/src/Mage/Runtime/Runtime.php
+++ b/src/Mage/Runtime/Runtime.php
@@ -446,4 +446,15 @@ class Runtime
     {
         return tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), 'mage');
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Get the current user
+     *
+     * @return string
+     */
+    public function getCurrentUser()
+    {
+        $userData = posix_getpwuid(posix_geteuid());
+        return $userData['name'];
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/RsyncTask.php b/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/RsyncTask.php
index da5fd04..5ae69ae 100644
--- a/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/RsyncTask.php
+++ b/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/RsyncTask.php
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class RsyncTask extends AbstractTask
     {
         $flags = $this->runtime->getConfigOptions('rsync', '-avz');
         $sshConfig = $this->runtime->getSSHConfig();
-        $user = $this->runtime->getEnvironmentConfig('user');
+        $user = $this->runtime->getEnvironmentConfig('user', $this->runtime->getCurrentUser());
         $host = $this->runtime->getWorkingHost();
         $hostPath = rtrim($this->runtime->getEnvironmentConfig('host_path'), '/');
         $targetDir = rtrim($hostPath, '/');
diff --git a/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/TarGz/CopyTask.php b/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/TarGz/CopyTask.php
index ba16706..03201d1 100644
--- a/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/TarGz/CopyTask.php
+++ b/src/Mage/Task/BuiltIn/Deploy/TarGz/CopyTask.php
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class CopyTask extends AbstractTask
             throw new DeploymentException('This task is only available with releases enabled', 40);
         }
 
-        $user = $this->runtime->getEnvironmentConfig('user');
+        $user = $this->runtime->getEnvironmentConfig('user', $this->runtime->getCurrentUser());
         $host = $this->runtime->getWorkingHost();
         $sshConfig = $sshConfig = $this->runtime->getSSHConfig();
         $hostPath = rtrim($this->runtime->getEnvironmentConfig('host_path'), '/');
diff --git a/src/Mage/Tests/Runtime/RuntimeTest.php b/src/Mage/Tests/Runtime/RuntimeTest.php
index 020bcc4..d8c4c84 100644
--- a/src/Mage/Tests/Runtime/RuntimeTest.php
+++ b/src/Mage/Tests/Runtime/RuntimeTest.php
@@ -154,4 +154,14 @@ class RuntimeTest extends TestCase
         $process = $runtime->runLocalCommand('false');
         $this->assertFalse($process->isSuccessful());
     }
+
+    public function testCurrentUser()
+    {
+        $runtime = new Runtime();
+        $userData = posix_getpwuid(posix_geteuid());
+
+        $this->assertTrue(is_array($userData));
+        $this->assertArrayHasKey('name', $userData);
+        $this->assertEquals($userData['name'], $runtime->getCurrentUser());
+    }
 }