diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults
index a7cb3dd0c6..bf61ba59f4 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/make.defaults
@@ -112,3 +112,8 @@ PORTAGE_WORKDIR_MODE="0755"
 
 # Don't let GRUB whine about /boot
 DONT_MOUNT_BOOT=1
+
+# Keep using bzip2 as a compressor for binary packages. Some hacks
+# inside the scripts repository that poke binary packages assume that
+# bzip2 is used, not zstd. Eventually we will want to move to zstd.
+BINPKG_COMPRESS=bzip2