diff --git a/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/Makefile.am.patch b/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/Makefile.am.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6f2e2ed36454
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/Makefile.am.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+--- a/apache2/Makefile.am
++++ b/apache2/Makefile.am
+@@ -179,7 +179,6 @@ install-exec-hook: $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES)
+ 	for m in $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES); do \
+ 	  base=`echo $$m | sed 's/\..*//'`; \
+ 	  rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.*a; \
+-	  install -D -m444 $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.so $(DESTDIR)$(APXS_MODULES)/$$base.so; \
+ 	done
+ else
+ install-exec-hook: $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES)
+@@ -187,6 +186,5 @@ install-exec-hook: $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES)
+ 	for m in $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES); do \
+ 	  base=`echo $$m | sed 's/\..*//'`; \
+ 	  rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.*a; \
+-	  cp -p $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.so $(DESTDIR)$(APXS_MODULES); \
+ 	done
+ endif
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/Makefile.in.patch b/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/Makefile.in.patch
deleted file mode 100644
index 98384c754ce7..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/Makefile.in.patch
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
---- a/apache2/Makefile.in	2017-10-10 09:45:51.000000000 -0400
-+++ b/apache2/Makefile.in	2017-10-10 09:46:04.000000000 -0400
-@@ -1208,14 +1208,12 @@
- @LINUX_TRUE@	for m in $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES); do \
- @LINUX_TRUE@	  base=`echo $$m | sed 's/\..*//'`; \
- @LINUX_TRUE@	  rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.*a; \
--@LINUX_TRUE@	  install -D -m444 $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.so $(DESTDIR)$(APXS_MODULES)/$$base.so; \
- @LINUX_TRUE@	done
- @LINUX_FALSE@install-exec-hook: $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES)
- @LINUX_FALSE@	@echo "Removing unused static libraries..."; \
- @LINUX_FALSE@	for m in $(pkglib_LTLIBRARIES); do \
- @LINUX_FALSE@	  base=`echo $$m | sed 's/\..*//'`; \
- @LINUX_FALSE@	  rm -f $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.*a; \
--@LINUX_FALSE@	  cp -p $(DESTDIR)$(pkglibdir)/$$base.so $(DESTDIR)$(APXS_MODULES); \
- @LINUX_FALSE@	done
- 
- # Tell versions [3.59,3.63) of GNU make to not export all variables.
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/default.nix
index 1bbefd1342c3..431a6f9338ea 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/security/modsecurity/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, pkg-config
+{ stdenv, lib, fetchFromGitHub, pkg-config, autoreconfHook
 , curl, apacheHttpd, pcre, apr, aprutil, libxml2
-, luaSupport ? false, lua5
+, luaSupport ? false, lua5, perl
 }:
 
 with lib;
@@ -11,14 +11,16 @@ in
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "modsecurity";
-  version = "2.9.3";
+  version = "2.9.6";
 
-  src = fetchurl {
-    url = "https://www.modsecurity.org/tarball/${version}/${pname}-${version}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "0611nskd2y6yagrciqafxdn4rxbdk2v4swf45kc1sgwx2sfh34j1";
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "SpiderLabs";
+    repo = pname;
+    rev = "v${version}";
+    sha256 = "sha256-C/D/UWaI4GsXjfhLmNnYhRJoUvlsps1551SqhmZUc/4=";
   };
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config autoreconfHook ];
   buildInputs = [  curl apacheHttpd pcre apr aprutil libxml2 ] ++
     optional luaSupport lua5;
 
@@ -37,7 +39,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   outputs = ["out" "nginx"];
   # by default modsecurity's install script copies compiled output to httpd's modules folder
   # this patch removes those lines
-  patches = [ ./Makefile.in.patch ];
+  patches = [ ./Makefile.am.patch ];
+
+  doCheck = true;
+  checkInputs = [ perl ];
 
   postInstall = ''
     mkdir -p $nginx