diff --git a/sys/vfs/vfs.c b/sys/vfs/vfs.c
index 9eb4c1d309..807a95d0d8 100644
--- a/sys/vfs/vfs.c
+++ b/sys/vfs/vfs.c
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #include <sys/stat.h> /* for struct stat */
 #include <sys/statvfs.h> /* for struct statvfs */
 #include <fcntl.h> /* for O_ACCMODE, ..., fcntl */
+#include <unistd.h> /* for STDIN_FILENO, STDOUT_FILENO, STDERR_FILENO */
 
 #include "vfs.h"
 #include "mutex.h"
@@ -867,6 +868,13 @@ static inline int _allocate_fd(int fd)
 {
     if (fd < 0) {
         for (fd = 0; fd < VFS_MAX_OPEN_FILES; ++fd) {
+            if ((fd == STDIN_FILENO) || (fd == STDOUT_FILENO) || (fd == STDERR_FILENO)) {
+                /* Do not auto-allocate the stdio file descriptor numbers to
+                 * avoid conflicts between normal file system users and stdio
+                 * drivers such as uart_stdio, rtt_stdio which need to be able
+                 * to bind to these specific file descriptor numbers. */
+                continue;
+            }
             if (_vfs_open_files[fd].pid == KERNEL_PID_UNDEF) {
                 break;
             }
diff --git a/tests/unittests/tests-vfs/tests-vfs-bind.c b/tests/unittests/tests-vfs/tests-vfs-bind.c
index 8efa809537..7bd0b9783b 100644
--- a/tests/unittests/tests-vfs/tests-vfs-bind.c
+++ b/tests/unittests/tests-vfs/tests-vfs-bind.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
 
 #include "embUnit/embUnit.h"
 
@@ -71,6 +72,9 @@ static void test_vfs_bind(void)
     uint8_t buf[_VFS_TEST_BIND_BUFSIZE];
     fd = vfs_bind(VFS_ANY_FD, O_RDWR, &_test_bind_ops, &buf[0]);
     TEST_ASSERT(fd >= 0);
+    TEST_ASSERT(fd != STDIN_FILENO);
+    TEST_ASSERT(fd != STDOUT_FILENO);
+    TEST_ASSERT(fd != STDERR_FILENO);
     if (fd < 0) {
         return;
     }