diff --git a/pkgs/servers/varnish/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/varnish/default.nix
index 16386d5b65d..c9f0f2b84bb 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/varnish/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/varnish/default.nix
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ let
         inherit sha256;
       };
 
+      passthru.python = python;
+
       nativeBuildInputs = with python.pkgs; [ pkgconfig docutils ] ++ extraNativeBuildInputs;
       buildInputs = [
         pcre libxslt groff ncurses readline libedit makeWrapper python
diff --git a/pkgs/servers/varnish/dynamic.nix b/pkgs/servers/varnish/dynamic.nix
index 711bc1cf78f..b3e86387ee3 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/varnish/dynamic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/varnish/dynamic.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, varnish, python, docutils }:
+{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, varnish, docutils }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   version = "0.3";
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "12a42lbv0vf6fn3qnvngw893kmbd006f8pgab4ir7irc8855xjgf";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig docutils autoreconfHook ];
-  buildInputs = [ varnish python ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig docutils autoreconfHook varnish.python ];
+  buildInputs = [ varnish ];
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace Makefile.am --replace "''${LIBVARNISHAPI_DATAROOTDIR}/aclocal" "${varnish.dev}/share/aclocal"
   '';
diff --git a/pkgs/servers/varnish/modules.nix b/pkgs/servers/varnish/modules.nix
index 7775221d163..16c74956db7 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/varnish/modules.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/varnish/modules.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, varnish, python, docutils, removeReferencesTo }:
+{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, varnish, docutils, removeReferencesTo }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   version = "0.14.0";
@@ -11,8 +11,15 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "17fkbr4i70qgdqsrx1x28ag20xkfyz1v3q3d3ywmv409aczqhm40";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig autoreconfHook docutils removeReferencesTo ];
-  buildInputs = [ varnish python ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    autoreconfHook
+    docutils
+    pkgconfig
+    removeReferencesTo
+    varnish.python  # use same python version as varnish server
+  ];
+
+  buildInputs = [ varnish ];
 
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace bootstrap   --replace "''${dataroot}/aclocal"                  "${varnish.dev}/share/aclocal"
diff --git a/pkgs/servers/varnish/rtstatus.nix b/pkgs/servers/varnish/rtstatus.nix
index 99c0bb17659..c27633a2d33 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/varnish/rtstatus.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/varnish/rtstatus.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, varnish, python, docutils }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, varnish, docutils }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   version = "1.2.0";
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "0hll1aspgpv1daw5sdbn5w1d6birchxgapzb6zi1nhahjlimy4ly";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig docutils ];
-  buildInputs = [ varnish python ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig docutils varnish.python ];
+  buildInputs = [ varnish ];
   configureFlags = [ "VMOD_DIR=$(out)/lib/varnish/vmods" ];
 
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {