diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/duckdb/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/duckdb/default.nix
index be1a20987881..03857e962a83 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/duckdb/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/duckdb/default.nix
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     in
     ''
       runHook preInstallCheck
+      (($(ulimit -n) < 1024)) && ulimit -n 1024
 
       HOME="$(mktemp -d)" ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}="$lib/lib" ./test/unittest ${toString excludes}