diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/flex/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/flex/default.nix
index 4ea11a622ea..55fe7db8007 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/flex/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/flex/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, bison, m4
+{ stdenv, buildPackages, fetchurl, bison, m4
 , fetchpatch, autoreconfHook, help2man
 }:
 
@@ -19,11 +19,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
         + "/tools/flex/patches/200-build-AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS-in-configure.ac.patch";
     sha256 = "1aarhcmz7mfrgh15pkj6f7ikxa2m0mllw1i1vscsf1kw5d05lw6f";
   })];
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook help2man ];
 
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ buildPackages.stdenv.cc autoreconfHook help2man ];
   buildInputs = [ bison ];
-
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [ m4 ];
+  nativePropagatedBuildInputs = [ m4 ];
 
   postConfigure = stdenv.lib.optionalString (stdenv.isDarwin || stdenv.isCygwin) ''
     sed -i Makefile -e 's/-no-undefined//;'