diff --git a/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/port-forward.ts b/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/port-forward.ts
index 339802880f..0fef113dce 100644
--- a/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/port-forward.ts
+++ b/garden-service/src/plugins/kubernetes/port-forward.ts
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 
 import { ChildProcess } from "child_process"
 
-import getPort = require("get-port")
 const AsyncLock = require("async-lock")
 import { V1Service } from "@kubernetes/client-node"
 
@@ -23,6 +22,7 @@ import { ForwardablePort } from "../../types/service"
 import { isBuiltIn } from "./util"
 import { LogEntry } from "../../logger/log-entry"
 import { RuntimeError } from "../../exceptions"
+import { getPort } from "../../util/network"
 
 // TODO: implement stopPortForward handler
 
diff --git a/garden-service/src/proxy.ts b/garden-service/src/proxy.ts
index 589c78038c..cb564088d7 100644
--- a/garden-service/src/proxy.ts
+++ b/garden-service/src/proxy.ts
@@ -10,12 +10,12 @@ import { isEqual, invert } from "lodash"
 import Bluebird from "bluebird"
 import { createServer, Server, Socket } from "net"
 const AsyncLock = require("async-lock")
-import getPort = require("get-port")
 import { Service, ServiceStatus, ForwardablePort } from "./types/service"
 import { Garden } from "./garden"
 import { registerCleanupFunction } from "./util/util"
 import { LogEntry } from "./logger/log-entry"
 import { GetPortForwardResult } from "./types/plugin/service/getPortForward"
+import { getPort } from "./util/network"
 
 interface PortProxy {
   key: string
diff --git a/garden-service/src/server/server.ts b/garden-service/src/server/server.ts
index ea36c30214..d3bf7e0b12 100644
--- a/garden-service/src/server/server.ts
+++ b/garden-service/src/server/server.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ import serve = require("koa-static")
 import Router = require("koa-router")
 import websockify from "koa-websocket"
 import bodyParser = require("koa-bodyparser")
-import getPort = require("get-port")
 import { omit } from "lodash"
 
 import { Garden } from "../garden"
@@ -28,6 +27,7 @@ import { EventName, Events } from "../events"
 import { ValueOf } from "../util/util"
 import { AnalyticsHandler } from "../analytics/analytics"
 import { joi } from "../config/common"
+import { getPort } from "../util/network"
 
 export const DEFAULT_PORT = 9777
 const notReadyMessage = "Waiting for Garden instance to initialize"
diff --git a/garden-service/src/util/network.ts b/garden-service/src/util/network.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..eaaab3c840
--- /dev/null
+++ b/garden-service/src/util/network.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2018 Garden Technologies, Inc. <info@garden.io>
+ *
+ * This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+ * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+ * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+ */
+
+import _getPort from "get-port"
+import { omit } from "lodash"
+
+export async function getPort(options?: _getPort.Options) {
+  try {
+    return await _getPort(options)
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (error.code === "EACCES") {
+      // Upstream library doesn't handle errors where a port is free but we're not allowed to listen on it.
+      // Fall back to using a random port.
+      return _getPort(omit(options, "port"))
+    } else {
+      throw error
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/garden-service/test/unit/src/server/server.ts b/garden-service/test/unit/src/server/server.ts
index cd6d7e7f01..dc207b3ee5 100644
--- a/garden-service/test/unit/src/server/server.ts
+++ b/garden-service/test/unit/src/server/server.ts
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ import { expect } from "chai"
 import { deepOmitUndefined } from "../../../../src/util/util"
 import uuid from "uuid"
 import request = require("supertest")
-import getPort = require("get-port")
 import WebSocket = require("ws")
+import { getPort } from "../../../../src/util/network"
 
 describe("startServer", () => {
   let garden: Garden
diff --git a/garden-service/test/unit/src/util/network.ts b/garden-service/test/unit/src/util/network.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ff07bc100c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/garden-service/test/unit/src/util/network.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+import { expect } from "chai"
+import { getPort } from "../../../../src/util/network"
+
+describe("getPort", () => {
+  it("should fall back to random port if not allowed to bind to specified port", async () => {
+    const port = await getPort({ port: 0 })
+    expect(port).to.not.equal(1)
+    expect(typeof port).to.equal("number")
+  })
+})