diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/mb/mbedtls/generic.nix b/pkgs/by-name/mb/mbedtls/generic.nix
index fb3e445249a6..b74fe03e288e 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/mb/mbedtls/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/mb/mbedtls/generic.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
   hash,
   patches ? [ ],
   fetchFromGitHub,
+  buildPackages,
 
   cmake,
   ninja,
@@ -87,6 +88,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     "-DCMAKE_C_FLAGS=-fzero-init-padding-bits=unions"
   ];
 
+  env = lib.optionalAttrs (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform) {
+    HOSTCC = lib.getExe buildPackages.stdenv.cc;
+  };
+
   doCheck = true;
 
   # Parallel checking causes test failures