diff --git a/base/Dockerfile b/base/Dockerfile
index 65f18460d7aba2091e0c76395452b3b0f92aa683..6c3d4eca5fc07a3e73d6db740b2d36a1068d4049 100644
--- a/base/Dockerfile
+++ b/base/Dockerfile
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ RUN R --slave -e "install.packages('IRkernel')"
 RUN R --slave -e "IRkernel::installspec(name = 'ir363', displayname = 'R 3.6.3')"
 
 # disable core dumps
-RUN ulimit -c 0
+RUN echo "* - core 0" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
 
 # fix permissions so NB_USER has permissions to run notebooks and install packages
 COPY base/fix-permissions /usr/local/bin/fix-permissions
diff --git a/base/start-notebook.sh b/base/start-notebook.sh
index 028dbe57c849c0fc3d51451c0e4b8e603c048d9a..0acc0fb45174f4bd899b1cd6357bf8f530cff31c 100644
--- a/base/start-notebook.sh
+++ b/base/start-notebook.sh
@@ -10,4 +10,6 @@ envsubst < /tmp/group.template > /tmp/group
 export LD_PRELOAD=libnss_wrapper.so
 export NSS_WRAPPER_PASSWD=/tmp/passwd
 export NSS_WRAPPER_GROUP=/tmp/group
+# Disable core dumps
+ulimit -c 0
 exec jupyter labhub --NotebookApp.default_url=/lab --config=/opt/app-root/etc/jupyter_notebook_config.py $@