diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2-cutter/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/cutter.nix
similarity index 74%
rename from pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2-cutter/default.nix
rename to pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/cutter.nix
index ff2b4d3b54f..4269661a4ff 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2-cutter/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/cutter.nix
@@ -4,20 +4,11 @@
 # Qt
 , qtbase, qtsvg, qtwebengine
 # buildInputs
-, radare2
+, r2-for-cutter
 , python3 }:
 
 let
-  r2 = radare2.overrideDerivation (o: {
-    name = "radare2-for-cutter-${version}";
-    src = fetchFromGitHub {
-      owner = "radare";
-      repo = "radare2";
-      rev = "a98557bfbfa96e9f677a8c779ee78085ee5a23bb";
-      sha256 = "04jl1lq3dqljb6vagzlym4wc867ayhx1v52f75rkfz0iybsh249r";
-    };
-  });
-  version = "1.6";
+  version = "1.7";
 in
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "radare2-cutter-${version}";
@@ -26,7 +17,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     owner = "radareorg";
     repo = "cutter";
     rev = "v${version}";
-    sha256 = "1ps52yf94yfnws3nn1iiwch2jy33dyvi7j47xkmh0m5fpdqi5xk7";
+    sha256 = "0z9wzxd5hw0ivakrg3xiv4zx1rjj032hlmizq0pxj22xjrj1gg9n";
   };
 
   postUnpack = "export sourceRoot=$sourceRoot/src";
@@ -41,7 +32,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   '';
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ qmake pkgconfig ];
-  buildInputs = [ qtbase qtsvg qtwebengine r2 python3 ];
+  buildInputs = [ qtbase qtsvg qtwebengine r2-for-cutter python3 ];
 
   qmakeFlags = [
     "CONFIG+=link_pkgconfig"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/default.nix
index 0264305134c..85559269f27 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 {stdenv, fetchFromGitHub
+, callPackage
 , ninja, meson , pkgconfig
 , libusb, readline, libewf, perl, zlib, openssl
 , gtk2 ? null, vte ? null, gtkdialog ? null
@@ -15,66 +16,94 @@ assert pythonBindings -> python != null;
 
 let
   inherit (stdenv.lib) optional;
+
+  generic = {
+    version_commit,
+    gittap,
+    gittip,
+    rev,
+    version,
+    sha256,
+    cs_tip,
+    cs_sha256
+  }:
+    stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+      name = "radare2-${version}";
+
+      src = fetchFromGitHub {
+        owner = "radare";
+        repo = "radare2";
+        inherit rev sha256;
+      };
+
+      postPatch = let
+        capstone = fetchFromGitHub {
+          owner = "aquynh";
+          repo = "capstone";
+          # version from $sourceRoot/shlr/Makefile
+          rev = cs_tip;
+          sha256 = cs_sha256;
+        };
+      in ''
+        if ! grep -F "CS_TIP=${cs_tip}" shlr/Makefile; then echo "CS_TIP mismatch"; exit 1; fi
+        # When using meson, it expects capstone source relative to build directory
+        mkdir -p build/shlr
+        ln -s ${capstone} build/shlr/capstone
+      '';
+
+      postInstall = ''
+        ln -s $out/bin/radare2 $out/bin/r2
+        install -D -m755 $src/binr/r2pm/r2pm $out/bin/r2pm
+      '';
+
+      mesonFlags = [
+        "-Dr2_version_commit=${version_commit}"
+        "-Dr2_gittap=${gittap}"
+        "-Dr2_gittip=${gittip}"
+        # 2.8.0 expects this, but later it becomes an option with default=false.
+        "-Dcapstone_in_builddir=true"
+      ];
+
+      enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+      nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ninja meson ];
+      buildInputs = [ readline libusb libewf perl zlib openssl]
+        ++ optional useX11 [gtkdialog vte gtk2]
+        ++ optional rubyBindings [ruby]
+        ++ optional pythonBindings [python]
+        ++ optional luaBindings [lua];
+
+      meta = {
+        description = "unix-like reverse engineering framework and commandline tools";
+        homepage = http://radare.org/;
+        license = stdenv.lib.licenses.gpl2Plus;
+        maintainers = with stdenv.lib.maintainers; [raskin makefu mic92];
+        platforms = with stdenv.lib.platforms; linux;
+        inherit version;
+      };
+  };
+in {
   #<generated>
   # DO NOT EDIT! Automatically generated by ./update.py
-  version_commit = "18681";
-  gittap = "2.7.0";
-  gittip = "6e08e452a7ec231a73997c44b4ff556c2998c7d9";
-  version = "2.7.0";
-  sha256 = "1a9z8w897256dhh3yhyfnshz3n2nrc4plc2i06cm5sznhl6x9xfx";
-  cs_tip = "ec8a5ce98fa0422a395489ed47da912b15d77441";
-  cs_sha256 = "080a64bqck28a2xfjwz29ddcr8p6hc6gi67mgry3pca289qrkk3q";
+  radare2 = generic {
+    version_commit = "19251";
+    gittap = "2.8.0";
+    gittip = "a76b965410aba07b4ef8b96d90b25b271c2003dd";
+    rev = "2.8.0";
+    version = "2.8.0";
+    sha256 = "1d9rkzc3vychy2h1bnywwx4why83rr18r0lvvl1cqx87ad5awcjk";
+    cs_tip = "782ea67e17a391ca0d3faafdc365b335a1a8930a";
+    cs_sha256 = "1maww4ir78a193pm3f8lr2kdkizi7rywn68ffa65ipyr7j4pl6i4";
+  };
+  r2-for-cutter = generic {
+    version_commit = "19251";
+    gittap = "2.8.0-118-gb0547831f";
+    gittip = "b0547831f127b7357e3c93bc43933482a4d6213b";
+    rev = "b0547831f127b7357e3c93bc43933482a4d6213b";
+    version = "2018-08-07";
+    sha256 = "1ix42kipd1aayb494ajbxawzc1cwikm9fxk343d1kchxx4a30a1m";
+    cs_tip = "782ea67e17a391ca0d3faafdc365b335a1a8930a";
+    cs_sha256 = "1maww4ir78a193pm3f8lr2kdkizi7rywn68ffa65ipyr7j4pl6i4";
+  };
   #</generated>
-in
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "radare2-${version}";
-
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
-    owner = "radare";
-    repo = "radare2";
-    rev = version;
-    inherit sha256;
-  };
-
-  postPatch = let
-    capstone = fetchFromGitHub {
-      owner = "aquynh";
-      repo = "capstone";
-      # version from $sourceRoot/shlr/Makefile
-      rev = cs_tip;
-      sha256 = cs_sha256;
-    };
-  in ''
-    if ! grep -F "CS_TIP=${cs_tip}" shlr/Makefile; then echo "CS_TIP mismatch"; exit 1; fi
-    ln -s ${capstone} shlr/capstone
-  '';
-
-  postInstall = ''
-    ln -s $out/bin/radare2 $out/bin/r2
-    install -D -m755 $src/binr/r2pm/r2pm $out/bin/r2pm
-  '';
-
-  mesonFlags = [
-    "-Dr2_version_commit=${version_commit}"
-    "-Dr2_gittap=${gittap}"
-    "-Dr2_gittip=${gittip}"
-  ];
-
-  enableParallelBuilding = true;
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgconfig ninja meson ];
-  buildInputs = [ readline libusb libewf perl zlib openssl]
-    ++ optional useX11 [gtkdialog vte gtk2]
-    ++ optional rubyBindings [ruby]
-    ++ optional pythonBindings [python]
-    ++ optional luaBindings [lua];
-
-  meta = {
-    description = "unix-like reverse engineering framework and commandline tools";
-    homepage = http://radare.org/;
-    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.gpl2Plus;
-    maintainers = with stdenv.lib.maintainers; [raskin makefu mic92];
-    platforms = with stdenv.lib.platforms; linux;
-    inherit version;
-  };
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/update.py b/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/update.py
index 1f16a00905c..fae6a52a392 100755
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/update.py
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/analysis/radare2/update.py
@@ -2,14 +2,16 @@
 #!nix-shell -p nix -p python3 -p git -i python
 # USAGE - just run the script: ./update.py
 # When editing this file, make also sure it passes the mypy typecheck
-# and is formatted with yapf.
-import urllib.request
-import json
-import tempfile
-import subprocess
+# and is formatted with black.
 import fileinput
+import json
 import re
+import subprocess
+import tempfile
+import urllib.request
+from datetime import datetime
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Dict
 
 
 def sh(*args: str) -> str:
@@ -18,50 +20,107 @@ def sh(*args: str) -> str:
 
 
 def prefetch_github(owner: str, repo: str, ref: str) -> str:
-    return sh("nix-prefetch-url", "--unpack",
-              f"https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/archive/{ref}.tar.gz")
+    return sh(
+        "nix-prefetch-url",
+        "--unpack",
+        f"https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/archive/{ref}.tar.gz",
+    )
 
 
-def main() -> None:
+def get_radare2_rev() -> str:
     url = "https://api.github.com/repos/radare/radare2/releases/latest"
     with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as response:
         release = json.load(response)  # type: ignore
-    version = release["tag_name"]
+    return release["tag_name"]
+
+
+def get_r2_cutter_rev() -> str:
+    url = "https://api.github.com/repos/radareorg/cutter/contents/"
+    with urllib.request.urlopen(url) as response:
+        data = json.load(response)  # type: ignore
+    for entry in data:
+        if entry["name"] == "radare2":
+            return entry["sha"]
+    raise Exception("no radare2 submodule found in github.com/radareorg/cutter")
+
+
+def git(dirname: str, *args: str) -> str:
+    return sh("git", "-C", dirname, *args)
+
+
+def get_repo_info(dirname: str, rev: str) -> Dict[str, str]:
+    sha256 = prefetch_github("radare", "radare2", rev)
+
+    cs_tip = None
+    with open(Path(dirname).joinpath("shlr", "Makefile")) as makefile:
+        for l in makefile:
+            match = re.match("CS_TIP=(\S+)", l)
+            if match:
+                cs_tip = match.group(1)
+    assert cs_tip is not None
+
+    cs_sha256 = prefetch_github("aquynh", "capstone", cs_tip)
+
+    return dict(
+        rev=rev,
+        sha256=sha256,
+        version_commit=git(dirname, "rev-list", "--all", "--count"),
+        gittap=git(dirname, "describe", "--tags", "--match", "[0-9]*"),
+        gittip=git(dirname, "rev-parse", "HEAD"),
+        cs_tip=cs_tip,
+        cs_sha256=cs_sha256,
+    )
+
+
+def write_package_expr(version: str, info: Dict[str, str]) -> str:
+    return f"""generic {{
+    version_commit = "{info["version_commit"]}";
+    gittap = "{info["gittap"]}";
+    gittip = "{info["gittip"]}";
+    rev = "{info["rev"]}";
+    version = "{version}";
+    sha256 = "{info["sha256"]}";
+    cs_tip = "{info["cs_tip"]}";
+    cs_sha256 = "{info["cs_sha256"]}";
+  }}"""
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    radare2_rev = get_radare2_rev()
+    r2_cutter_rev = get_r2_cutter_rev()
+
     with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as dirname:
-
-        def git(*args: str) -> str:
-            return sh("git", "-C", dirname, *args)
-
-        git("clone", "--branch", version, "https://github.com/radare/radare2",
-            ".")
-        sha256 = prefetch_github("radare", "radare2", version)
+        git(
+            dirname,
+            "clone",
+            "--branch",
+            radare2_rev,
+            "https://github.com/radare/radare2",
+            ".",
+        )
         nix_file = str(Path(__file__).parent.joinpath("default.nix"))
 
-        cs_tip = None
-        with open(Path(dirname).joinpath("shlr", "Makefile")) as makefile:
-            for l in makefile:
-                match = re.match("CS_TIP=(\S+)", l)
-                if match:
-                    cs_tip = match.group(1)
-        assert cs_tip is not None
+        radare2_info = get_repo_info(dirname, radare2_rev)
 
-        cs_sha256 = prefetch_github("aquynh", "capstone", cs_tip)
+        git(dirname, "checkout", r2_cutter_rev)
+
+        timestamp = git(dirname, "log", "-n1", "--format=%at")
+        r2_cutter_version = datetime.fromtimestamp(int(timestamp)).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
+
+        r2_cutter_info = get_repo_info(dirname, r2_cutter_rev)
 
         in_block = False
         with fileinput.FileInput(nix_file, inplace=True) as f:
             for l in f:
                 if "#<generated>" in l:
                     in_block = True
-                    print(f"""  #<generated>
+                    print(
+                        f"""  #<generated>
   # DO NOT EDIT! Automatically generated by ./update.py
-  version_commit = "{git("rev-list", "--all", "--count")}";
-  gittap = "{git("describe", "--tags", "--match", "[0-9]*")}";
-  gittip = "{git("rev-parse", "HEAD")}";
-  version = "{version}";
-  sha256 = "{sha256}";
-  cs_tip = "{cs_tip}";
-  cs_sha256 = "{cs_sha256}";
-  #</generated>""")
+  radare2 = {write_package_expr(radare2_rev, radare2_info)};
+  r2-for-cutter = {write_package_expr(r2_cutter_version, r2_cutter_info)};
+  #</generated>"""
+                    )
                 elif "#</generated>" in l:
                     in_block = False
                 elif not in_block:
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 5b4a090efc8..e54505a17f7 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -8532,15 +8532,17 @@ with pkgs;
     rubyBindings = config.radare.rubyBindings or false;
     luaBindings = config.radare.luaBindings or false;
   };
-  radare2 = callPackage ../development/tools/analysis/radare2 {
+
+  inherit (callPackages ../development/tools/analysis/radare2 {
     inherit (gnome2) vte;
     lua = lua5;
     useX11 = config.radare.useX11 or false;
     pythonBindings = config.radare.pythonBindings or false;
     rubyBindings = config.radare.rubyBindings or false;
     luaBindings = config.radare.luaBindings or false;
-  };
-  radare2-cutter = libsForQt5.callPackage ../development/tools/analysis/radare2-cutter { };
+  }) radare2 r2-for-cutter;
+
+  radare2-cutter = libsForQt5.callPackage ../development/tools/analysis/radare2/cutter.nix { };
 
   ragel = ragelStable;