diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix b/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix
index 151b5ee1520..45a65965112 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/web-servers/lighttpd/default.nix
@@ -89,14 +89,9 @@ let
       accesslog.use-syslog = "enable"
       server.errorlog-use-syslog = "enable"
 
-      mimetype.assign = (
-          ".html" => "text/html",
-          ".htm" => "text/html",
-          ".txt" => "text/plain",
-          ".jpg" => "image/jpeg",
-          ".png" => "image/png",
-          ".css" => "text/css"
-          )
+      ${lib.optionalString cfg.enableUpstreamMimeTypes ''
+      include "${pkgs.lighttpd}/share/lighttpd/doc/config/conf.d/mime.conf"
+      ''}
 
       static-file.exclude-extensions = ( ".fcgi", ".php", ".rb", "~", ".inc" )
       index-file.names = ( "index.html" )
@@ -168,6 +163,17 @@ in
         '';
       };
 
+      enableUpstreamMimeTypes = mkOption {
+        type = types.bool;
+        default = true;
+        description = ''
+          Whether to include the list of mime types bundled with lighttpd
+          (upstream). If you disable this, no mime types will be added by
+          NixOS and you will have to add your own mime types in
+          <option>services.lighttpd.extraConfig</option>.
+        '';
+      };
+
       mod_status = mkOption {
         default = false;
         type = types.bool;