diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix
index 6eefc067d6e8..d39adcaab540 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/head.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 # build-tools
 , bootPkgs
-, autoconf, autoreconfHook, automake, coreutils, fetchgit, perl, python3, m4, sphinx
+, autoconf, autoreconfHook, automake, coreutils, fetchgit, perl, python3, m4, sphinx, xattr
 , bash
 
 , libiconv ? null, ncurses
@@ -255,6 +255,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (rec {
     ghc bootPkgs.alex bootPkgs.happy bootPkgs.hscolour
   ] ++ lib.optionals enableDocs [
     sphinx
+  ] ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [
+    # TODO(@sternenseemann): use XATTR env var once we have
+    # https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/merge_requests/6447
+    xattr
   ];
 
   # For building runtime libs
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/haskell-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/haskell-packages.nix
index 587113219dd4..530c3c43f76a 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/haskell-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/haskell-packages.nix
@@ -126,6 +126,10 @@ in {
     ghcHEAD = callPackage ../development/compilers/ghc/head.nix {
       bootPkgs = packages.ghc901; # no binary yet
       inherit (buildPackages.python3Packages) sphinx;
+      # Need to use apple's patched xattr until
+      # https://github.com/xattr/xattr/issues/44 and
+      # https://github.com/xattr/xattr/issues/55 are solved.
+      inherit (buildPackages.darwin) xattr;
       buildLlvmPackages = buildPackages.llvmPackages_10;
       llvmPackages = pkgs.llvmPackages_10;
       libffi = pkgs.libffi;