diff --git a/Lib/test/test_posix.py b/Lib/test/test_posix.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_posix.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_posix.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import stat
 import tempfile
 import unittest
 import warnings
+import platform
 
 _DUMMY_SYMLINK = os.path.join(tempfile.gettempdir(),
                               support.TESTFN + '-dummy-symlink')
@@ -398,7 +399,9 @@ class PosixTester(unittest.TestCase):
                 chown_func(first_param, ent.pw_uid, ent.pw_gid)
             except KeyError:
                 pass
-        else:
+        # HP-UX and Solaris allow a non-root user to chown to root (issue
+        # #5113)
+        elif platform.system() not in ('HP-UX', 'SunOS'):
             # non-root cannot chown to root, raises OSError
             self.assertRaises(OSError, chown_func,
                               first_param, 0, 0)