diff --git a/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix b/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
index cfa7dbeb5542..e28b33d117ba 100644
--- a/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/test/texlive/default.nix
@@ -402,6 +402,29 @@ rec {
         done
       '';
 
+  # verify that l3build works correctly
+  l3build =
+    runCommand "texlive-test-l3build"
+      {
+        nativeBuildInputs = [ (texliveSmall.withPackages (ps: [ ps.l3build ])) ];
+      }
+      ''
+        cat >>build.lua <<EOF
+        module = "texlive-test-l3build"
+        typesetfiles = {"*.tex"}
+        EOF
+
+        cat >>test-l3build.tex <<EOF
+        \documentclass{article}
+        \begin{document}
+        l3build ran successfully.
+        \end{document}
+        EOF
+
+        l3build doc
+        l3build install --full --texmfhome "$out"
+      '';
+
   # verify that the restricted mode gets enabled when
   # needed (detected by checking if it disallows --gscmd)
   repstopdf =
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixed-hashes.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixed-hashes.nix
index aa98202ecc35..389642652d96 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixed-hashes.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/fixed-hashes.nix
@@ -9749,7 +9749,7 @@
     source = "12np4gmh0y5cg66ijb96kfbdq49d38rg485nql5q0n6pgn42apnc";
   };
   l3build-77170 = {
-    run = "0f3qfgm4whm1p8alx8gwca2glgx86c48w04d62zkpzgpadkyhzbq";
+    run = "18104w97ad97ki02yghqclcdv0v916h8lyp676cyg3wc7hjvs5cq";
     doc = "0i45c0bni3xx38wgcp30gh2dg0ak2snsfjrx86kwfyvmgjsm9ric";
     source = "1n2g8vcfnya74dsm8plaj0vbfwgs8a4lqpxqvxa9vgdda288534p";
   };
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix
index 80b7128ca334..76da80311de0 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/tlpdb-overrides.nix
@@ -460,6 +460,15 @@ lib.recursiveUpdate orig rec {
     substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/latexindent --replace-fail 'use FindBin;' "BEGIN { \$0 = '$scriptsFolder' . '/latexindent.pl'; }; use FindBin;"
   '';
 
+  # l3build ignores the TEXMFCNF variable to prevent user customisations from affecting the build
+  # but we rely on TEXMFCNF to find the system texmf.cnf, so we must inject its path into l3build
+  # WARNING: this relies on the system texmf.cnf being in $TEXMFSYSVAR/web2c
+  l3build.postUnpack = ''
+    if [[ -f "$out"/scripts/l3build/l3build-aux.lua ]] ; then
+      substituteInPlace "$out"/scripts/l3build/l3build-aux.lua --replace-fail '" TEXMFCNF=."' '" TEXMFCNF=." .. os_pathsep .. kpse.var_value("TEXMFSYSVAR") .. "/web2c"'
+    fi
+  '';
+
   # find files in script directory, not in binary directory
   minted.postFixup = ''
     substituteInPlace "$out"/bin/latexminted --replace-fail "__file__" "\"$scriptsFolder/latexminted.py\""