diff --git a/libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/Makefile.am b/libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/Makefile.am
index 9dccfdef6..761735a9a 100644
--- a/libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/Makefile.am
+++ b/libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/Makefile.am
@@ -10,8 +10,7 @@ test_python.py: test_python.py.in $(top_builddir)/config.status
 
 CLEANFILES = test_python.py
 
-# bah, how brittle is this?
-PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH = '$(builddir)/../build/$$($(PYTHON) -c "import sysconfig; print(\"lib.%s-%s\" %(sysconfig.get_platform(), sysconfig.get_python_version()))")'
+PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH = '$(builddir)/../build/$$($(PYTHON) buildpath.py)'
 
 TESTS	= test_python.py
 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
diff --git a/libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/buildpath.py b/libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/buildpath.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f02410762
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/buildpath.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# the build path has changed in setuptools 61.2
+import sys
+import sysconfig
+import setuptools
+if tuple(map(int,setuptools.__version__.split("."))) >= (61, 2):
+    identifier = sys.implementation.cache_tag
+else:
+    identifier = "%d.%d" % sys.version_info[:2]
+print("lib.%s-%s" % (sysconfig.get_platform(), identifier))
diff --git a/utils/test/Makefile b/utils/test/Makefile
index 54afaacc8..e793efe74 100644
--- a/utils/test/Makefile
+++ b/utils/test/Makefile
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ ifdef USE_SYSTEM
     BASEDIR=
     PARSER=
 else
-    # PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH based on libapparmor/swig/python/test/Makefile.am
-    PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH = ../../libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/build/$$($(PYTHON) -c "import sysconfig; print(\"lib.%s-%s\" %(sysconfig.get_platform(), sysconfig.get_python_version()))")
+    # PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH based on libapparmor/swig/python/test/testbuildpath.py
+    PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH = ../../libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/build/$$($(PYTHON) ../../libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/buildpath.py)
     LIBAPPARMOR_PATH=../../libraries/libapparmor/src/.libs/
     LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(LIBAPPARMOR_PATH):$(PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH)
     PYTHONPATH=..:$(PYTHON_DIST_BUILD_PATH)
diff --git a/utils/test/README.md b/utils/test/README.md
index 162439747..a2767d7af 100644
--- a/utils/test/README.md
+++ b/utils/test/README.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ For more information, refer to the [unittest documentation](https://docs.python.
 Make sure to set the environment variables pointing to the in-tree apparmor modules, and the in-tree libapparmor and its python wrapper:
 
 ```bash
-$ export PYTHONPATH=..:../../libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/build/$(/usr/bin/python3 -c "import sysconfig; print(\"lib.%s-%s\" %(sysconfig.get_platform(), sysconfig.get_python_version()))")
+$ export PYTHONPATH=..:../../libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/build/$(/usr/bin/python3 ../../libraries/libapparmor/swig/python/test/buildpath.py)
 $ export __AA_CONFDIR=.
 ```
 
@@ -24,4 +24,4 @@ To execute the test individually, run:
 
 ```bash
 $ python3 ./test-tile.py ClassFoo.test_bar
-```
\ No newline at end of file
+```