diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
index 9a124f415b8c..5bedd1a9f9ca 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/setup-hooks/auto-patchelf.sh
@@ -205,9 +205,12 @@ autoPatchelf() {
     # outside of this function.
     while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' file; do
       isELF "$file" || continue
+      segmentHeaders="$(LANG=C readelf -l "$file")"
+      # Skip if the ELF file doesn't have segment headers (eg. object files).
+      echo "$segmentHeaders" | grep -q '^Program Headers:' || continue
       if isExecutable "$file"; then
           # Skip if the executable is statically linked.
-          LANG=C readelf -l "$file" | grep -q "^ *INTERP\\>" || continue
+          echo "$segmentHeaders" | grep -q "^ *INTERP\\>" || continue
       fi
       autoPatchelfFile "$file"
     done < <(find "$@" ${norecurse:+-maxdepth 1} -type f -print0)