diff --git a/pkgs/tools/networking/vpnc/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/networking/vpnc/default.nix
index dcce3bba5df..34f41272da8 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/networking/vpnc/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/networking/vpnc/default.nix
@@ -1,21 +1,25 @@
-args: with args;
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, nettools, libgcrypt, perl, gawk, makeWrapper }:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "vpnc-0.5.1";
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "vpnc-0.5.3";
   src = fetchurl {
-    url = http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/vpnc/vpnc-0.5.1.tar.gz;
-    sha256 = "f63660bd020bbe6a39e8eb67ad60c54d719046c6198a6834371d098947f9a2ed";
+    url = "http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/vpnc/${name}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "1128860lis89g1s21hqxvap2nq426c9j4bvgghncc1zj0ays7kj6";
   };
 
   patches = [ ./makefile.patch ];
 
   # The `etc/vpnc/vpnc-script' script relies on `which' and on
   # `ifconfig' as found in net-tools (not GNU Inetutils).
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [which nettools];
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ nettools ];
 
   buildInputs = [libgcrypt perl makeWrapper];
 
   preConfigure = ''
+    substituteInPlace "vpnc-script.in" \
+      --replace "which" "type -P" \
+      --replace "awk" "${gawk}/bin/awk"
+
     substituteInPlace "config.c" \
       --replace "/etc/vpnc/vpnc-script" "$out/etc/vpnc/vpnc-script"
 
@@ -27,7 +31,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
     for i in $out/{bin,sbin}/*
     do
       wrapProgram $i --prefix PATH :  \
-        "${which}/bin:${nettools}/bin:${nettools}/sbin"
+        "${nettools}/bin:${nettools}/sbin"
     done
   '';
 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 0539fabfdda..f4ee92b49af 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -1217,7 +1217,8 @@ let
   };
 
   vpnc = import ../tools/networking/vpnc {
-    inherit fetchurl stdenv libgcrypt perl which nettools makeWrapper;
+    inherit fetchurl stdenv libgcrypt perl gawk
+      nettools makeWrapper;
   };
 
   testdisk = import ../tools/misc/testdisk {