diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d3541dae77e..10cb244bfcc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Currently the versioning policy of this project follows [Semantic Versioning v2.
 - Updated the MS_EXPOSE_REP description to mention mutable objects, not just arrays ([#1669](https://github.com/spotbugs/spotbugs/issues/1669))
 - Described Configuration option frc.suspicious for bug RC_REF_COMPARISON in bug description ([#2297](https://github.com/spotbugs/spotbugs/issues/2297))
 - Fixed FindHEMismatch not reporting HE_SIGNATURE_DECLARES_HASHING_OF_UNHASHABLE_CLASS for some classes ([#2402](https://github.com/spotbugs/spotbugs/issues/2402))
+- Added execute file permission to files in the distribution zip  ([#2540](https://github.com/spotbugs/spotbugs/issues/2540))
 
 ### Added
 - New simple name-based AnnotationMatcher for exclude files (now bug annotations store the class java annotations in an attribute called `classAnnotationNames`). For example, use like <Match><Annotation name="org.immutables.value.Generated" /></Match> in an excludeFilter.xml to ignore classes generated by the Immutable framework. This ignores all class, method or field bugs in classes with that annotation.
diff --git a/spotbugs/build.gradle b/spotbugs/build.gradle
index 154231dfb64..2f3f61559b7 100644
--- a/spotbugs/build.gradle
+++ b/spotbugs/build.gradle
@@ -283,6 +283,7 @@ tasks.named('distTar', Tar) {
 }
 def distZip = tasks.named('distZip', Zip) {
   duplicatesStrategy = DuplicatesStrategy.FAIL
+  fileMode 0755
 }
 tasks.named('jar') {
   dependsOn tasks.named('updateManifest')