diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2505.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2505.section.md
index c9e5123743be..ba8317e9c660 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2505.section.md
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/release-notes/rl-2505.section.md
@@ -127,6 +127,11 @@
 
 - `zammad` has had its support for MySQL removed, since it was never working correctly and is now deprecated upstream. Check the [migration guide](https://docs.zammad.org/en/latest/appendix/migrate-to-postgresql.html) for how to convert your database to PostgreSQL.
 
+- The `earlyoom` service is now using upstream systemd service, which enables
+  hardening and filesystem isolation by default. If you need filesystem write
+  access or want to access home directory via `killHook`, hardening setting can
+  be changed via, e.g. `systemd.services.earlyoom.serviceConfig.ProtectSystem`.
+
 - `nodePackages.vls` has been deprecated, as the upstream consumer of it, vetur, has been deprecated by upstream. Upstream suggests migrating to Volar for Vue LSP tooling instead.
 
 - `nodePackages.create-react-native-app` has been removed, as it is deprecated. Upstream suggests using a framework for React Native apps instead.
diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/system/earlyoom.nix b/nixos/modules/services/system/earlyoom.nix
index 7e012dee02cb..adf754c6abd6 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/system/earlyoom.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/system/earlyoom.nix
@@ -115,6 +115,11 @@ in
         [README](https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom#notifications) and
         [the man page](https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom/blob/master/MANPAGE.md#-n-pathtoscript)
         for details.
+
+        WARNING: earlyoom is running in a sandbox with ProtectSystem="strict"
+        by default, so filesystem write is also prohibited for the hook.
+        If you want to change these protection rules, override the systemd
+        service via `systemd.services.earlyoom.serviceConfig.ProtectSystem`.
       '';
     };
 
@@ -149,25 +154,33 @@ in
   config = mkIf cfg.enable {
     services.systembus-notify.enable = mkDefault cfg.enableNotifications;
 
+    systemd.packages = [ cfg.package ];
+
     systemd.services.earlyoom = {
-      description = "Early OOM Daemon for Linux";
+      overrideStrategy = "asDropin";
+
       wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
       path = optionals cfg.enableNotifications [ pkgs.dbus ];
-      serviceConfig = {
-        StandardError = "journal";
-        ExecStart = concatStringsSep " " ([
-          "${lib.getExe cfg.package}"
-          ("-m ${toString cfg.freeMemThreshold}"
-           + optionalString (cfg.freeMemKillThreshold != null) ",${toString cfg.freeMemKillThreshold}")
-          ("-s ${toString cfg.freeSwapThreshold}"
-           + optionalString (cfg.freeSwapKillThreshold != null) ",${toString cfg.freeSwapKillThreshold}")
-          "-r ${toString cfg.reportInterval}"
-        ]
-        ++ optionals cfg.enableDebugInfo [ "-d" ]
-        ++ optionals cfg.enableNotifications [ "-n" ]
-        ++ optionals (cfg.killHook != null) [ "-N ${escapeShellArg cfg.killHook}" ]
-        ++ cfg.extraArgs);
-      };
+
+      # We setup `EARLYOOM_ARGS` via drop-ins, so disable the default import
+      # from /etc/default/earlyoom.
+      serviceConfig.EnvironmentFile = "";
+
+      environment.EARLYOOM_ARGS =
+        lib.cli.toGNUCommandLineShell { } {
+          m =
+            "${toString cfg.freeMemThreshold}"
+            + optionalString (cfg.freeMemKillThreshold != null) ",${toString cfg.freeMemKillThreshold}";
+          s =
+            "${toString cfg.freeSwapThreshold}"
+            + optionalString (cfg.freeSwapKillThreshold != null) ",${toString cfg.freeSwapKillThreshold}";
+          r = "${toString cfg.reportInterval}";
+          d = cfg.enableDebugInfo;
+          n = cfg.enableNotifications;
+          N = if cfg.killHook != null then cfg.killHook else null;
+        }
+        + " "
+        + lib.escapeShellArgs cfg.extraArgs;
     };
   };
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ea/earlyoom/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ea/earlyoom/package.nix
index fead6ff586e0..ed3f0006b466 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/ea/earlyoom/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ea/earlyoom/package.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 {
   lib,
   fetchFromGitHub,
-  installShellFiles,
   pandoc,
   stdenv,
   nixosTests,
-  # Boolean flags
+  fetchpatch,
+  # The man page requires pandoc to build and resides in a separate "man"
+  # output which is pulled in on-demand. There is no need to disabled it unless
+  # pandoc is hard to build on your platform.
   withManpage ? true,
 }:
 
@@ -22,25 +24,26 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
 
   outputs = [ "out" ] ++ lib.optionals withManpage [ "man" ];
 
-  patches = [ ./0000-fix-dbus-path.patch ];
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = lib.optionals withManpage [
-    installShellFiles
-    pandoc
+  patches = [
+    ./0000-fix-dbus-path.patch
+    # Respect `MANDIR`.
+    (fetchpatch {
+      url = "https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom/commit/c5a1799a5ff4b3fd3132d50a510e8c126933cf4a.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-64AkpTMmjiqZ6Byq6687zNIqrQ/IGRGgzzjyyAfcg14=";
+    })
+    # Correctly handle `PREFIX` as a default rather than always-concatenate.
+    (fetchpatch {
+      url = "https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom/commit/f7d6f1cc925962fbdcf57b1c2aeeabbf11e2d542.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-DJDeQzcEGJMoMGIi1D/ogMaKG1VQvPZN9jXtUDGjyjk=";
+    })
   ];
 
+  nativeBuildInputs = lib.optionals withManpage [ pandoc ];
+
   makeFlags = [
     "VERSION=${finalAttrs.version}"
-  ];
-
-  installPhase = ''
-    runHook preInstall
-    install -D earlyoom $out/bin/earlyoom
-  '' + lib.optionalString withManpage ''
-    installManPage earlyoom.1
-  '' + ''
-    runHook postInstall
-  '';
+    "PREFIX=${placeholder "out"}"
+  ] ++ lib.optional withManpage "MANDIR=${placeholder "man"}/share/man";
 
   passthru.tests = {
     inherit (nixosTests) earlyoom;
@@ -58,7 +61,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     '';
     license = lib.licenses.mit;
     mainProgram = "earlyoom";
-    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ ];
+    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [
+      oxalica
+    ];
     platforms = lib.platforms.linux;
   };
 })