diff --git a/lix/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc b/lix/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
index 1d1d59a31..fac4335fe 100644
--- a/lix/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
+++ b/lix/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
@@ -1511,6 +1511,8 @@ void LocalDerivationGoal::runChild()
 
         if (getEnv("_NIX_TEST_NO_SANDBOX") != "1") {
             Strings sandboxArgs;
+            sandboxArgs.push_back("_NIX_BUILD_TOP");
+            sandboxArgs.push_back(tmpDir);
             sandboxArgs.push_back("_GLOBAL_TMP_DIR");
             sandboxArgs.push_back(globalTmpDir);
             if (allowLocalNetworking) {
diff --git a/lix/libstore/build/sandbox-defaults.sb b/lix/libstore/build/sandbox-defaults.sb
index 25ec11285..1b1ee2811 100644
--- a/lix/libstore/build/sandbox-defaults.sb
+++ b/lix/libstore/build/sandbox-defaults.sb
@@ -26,12 +26,14 @@ R""(
 ; Allow getpwuid.
 (allow mach-lookup (global-name "com.apple.system.opendirectoryd.libinfo"))
 
-; Access to /tmp.
+; Access to /tmp and the build directory.
 ; The network-outbound/network-inbound ones are for unix domain sockets, which
 ; we allow access to in TMPDIR (but if we allow them more broadly, you could in
 ; theory escape the sandbox)
 (allow file* process-exec network-outbound network-inbound
-       (literal "/tmp") (subpath TMPDIR))
+       (literal "/tmp")
+       (subpath TMPDIR)
+       (subpath (param "_NIX_BUILD_TOP")))
 
 ; Some packages like to read the system version.
 (allow file-read*