diff --git a/pkgs/tools/security/john/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/security/john/default.nix
index 4107e9fcf14..de02dc1a379 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/security/john/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/security/john/default.nix
@@ -31,7 +31,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     export AS=$CC
     export LD=$CC
   '';
-  configureFlags = [ "--disable-native-macro" ];
+  configureFlags = [
+    "--disable-native-tests"
+    "--with-systemwide"
+  ];
 
   buildInputs = [ openssl nss nspr kerberos gmp zlib libpcap re2 ];
   nativeBuildInputs = [ gcc python3Packages.wrapPython perl makeWrapper ];
@@ -44,8 +47,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # gcc: error: memdbg.o: No such file or directory
   enableParallelBuilding = false;
 
-  NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = [ "-DJOHN_SYSTEMWIDE=1" ];
-
   postInstall = ''
     mkdir -p "$out/bin" "$out/etc/john" "$out/share/john" "$out/share/doc/john"
     find -L ../run -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -executable \