diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host
index d0b74f78ee..a131645e91 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-host
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O2 -Wl,--as-needed"
 FEATURES="allow-missing-manifests buildpkg clean-logs -collision-protect
           -ebuild-locks parallel-install sandbox -strict userfetch userpriv
           usersandbox -unknown-features-warn"
-USE="-openrc"
+
 # Since our portage comes from version control, we redirect distfiles
 DISTDIR="/var/lib/portage/distfiles"
 
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@ source /usr/local/portage/coreos/coreos/binhost/host/amd64-PREFLIGHT_BINHOST.con
 FULL_BINHOST="https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromeos-prebuilt/host/amd64/amd64-host/chroot-2013.02.04.090227/packages/"
 PORTAGE_BINHOST="$PREFLIGHT_BINHOST $FULL_BINHOST"
 
-# expat needed for XML parsing in GDB, but enable globally as overhead is tiny.
-USE="${USE} -cups hardened cros_host multilib pic pie -introspection expat"
-
 GENTOO_MIRRORS="
 	http://gentoo.osuosl.org/
 	https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromeos-mirror/gentoo
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-target b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-target
index 6f52f288da..75eb28c028 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-target
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.amd64-target
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@ ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
 # Common settings across all board targets.
 source make.conf.common
 
-# Recommended x86-specific USE flags.
-USE="${USE} mmx sse sse2 dri hardened"
-
 # Recommended MARCH_TUNE, CFLAGS, etc.
 MARCH_TUNE=""
 
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target
index 9665e0bb0a..7240076555 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/make.conf.common-target
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ HOSTCC=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc
 LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O2 -Wl,--as-needed"
 
 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="${ARCH}"
-USE="${ARCH} zlib bindist cros-debug -introspection cmt"
 
 # Be sure we don't overwrite pkgs from another sysroot.
 PKGDIR=${ROOT}packages/
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/base/make.defaults b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/base/make.defaults
index 0ade1c57d1..ae189e38fe 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/base/make.defaults
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/base/make.defaults
@@ -136,6 +136,10 @@ PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_6"
 USE_EXPAND="${USE_EXPAND} BOARD_USE CROS_WORKON_TREE TESTS U_BOOT_CONFIG_USE U_BOOT_FDT_USE"
 USE_EXPAND_HIDDEN="${USE_EXPAND_HIDDEN} CROS_WORKON_TREE"
 
+# Extra use flags for Core OS SDK (and possibly targets)
+# Previously defined in make.conf
+USE="${USE} hardened cros_host pic pie expat -introspection -cups -openrc"
+
 # Default licenses that are accepted for ChromiumOS builds.
 # If you want to accept more, use the --accept_licenses flag
 # when running setup_board.
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/targets/coreos/make.defaults b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/targets/coreos/make.defaults
index 44228db967..19221eb07a 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/targets/coreos/make.defaults
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/targets/coreos/make.defaults
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2012 The Chromium OS Authors. All rights reserved.
 # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
 
-USE="acpi usb pam -cairo -X"
-
+USE="bindist cros-debug acpi usb pam"
+USE="${USE} -cros_host -expat -pic -pie -cairo -X"
 USE="${USE} -acl -cracklib -gpm -ipv6 -openmp -python -sha512"
 USE="${USE} -fortran -abiword -perl -cups -poppler-data -nls"