diff --git a/pkgs/servers/http/lighttpd/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/http/lighttpd/default.nix
index 8a3c26f63307..66bc45de9423 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/http/lighttpd/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/http/lighttpd/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, pcre, libxml2, zlib, attr, bzip2 }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, pcre, libxml2, zlib, attr, bzip2, which, file }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   name = "lighttpd-1.4.32";
@@ -8,7 +8,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     sha256 = "1hgd9bi4mrak732h57na89lqg58b1kkchnddij9gawffd40ghs0k";
   };
 
-  buildInputs = [ pcre libxml2 zlib attr bzip2 ];
+  buildInputs = [ pcre libxml2 zlib attr bzip2 which file ];
+
+  preConfigure = ''
+    sed -i "s:/usr/bin/file:${file}/bin/file:g" configure
+  '';
 
   meta = {
     description = "Lightweight high-performance web server";