diff --git a/version/cmdname.go b/version/cmdname.go
index 5a0b84875..137979f82 100644
--- a/version/cmdname.go
+++ b/version/cmdname.go
@@ -6,134 +6,51 @@
 package version
 
 import (
-	"bytes"
-	"encoding/hex"
-	"errors"
-	"io"
 	"os"
 	"path"
 	"runtime"
+	"runtime/debug"
 	"strings"
+	"sync"
 )
 
 // CmdName returns either the base name of the current binary
 // using os.Executable. If os.Executable fails (it shouldn't), then
 // "cmd" is returned.
-func CmdName() string {
-	e, err := os.Executable()
-	if err != nil {
-		return "cmd"
+//
+// The result is computed once per process and cached. It is recovered
+// from the Go module info embedded in the running binary via
+// [runtime/debug.ReadBuildInfo], which reads an already-resident
+// string maintained by the runtime; no filesystem I/O is performed.
+// This is materially cheaper than inferring the command name from
+// the on-disk executable, which was previously done by scanning the
+// entire binary for magic bytes on every call. CmdName is called at
+// least twice during tailscaled startup on Windows (by logpolicy).
+func CmdName() string { return cmdNameCached() }
+
+var cmdNameCached = sync.OnceValue(func() string {
+	// fallbackName is derived from os.Executable and used if we cannot
+	// recover a package path from the binary's embedded build info.
+	var fallbackName string
+	if e, err := os.Executable(); err == nil {
+		fallbackName = prepExeNameForCmp(e, runtime.GOARCH)
+	} else {
+		fallbackName = "cmd"
 	}
-	return cmdName(e)
-}
 
-func cmdName(exe string) string {
-	// fallbackName, the lowercase basename of the executable, is what we return if
-	// we can't find the Go module metadata embedded in the file.
-	fallbackName := prepExeNameForCmp(exe, runtime.GOARCH)
-
-	var ret string
-	info, err := findModuleInfo(exe)
-	if err != nil {
+	bi, ok := debug.ReadBuildInfo()
+	if !ok || bi.Path == "" {
 		return fallbackName
 	}
-	// v is like:
-	// "path\ttailscale.com/cmd/tailscale\nmod\ttailscale.com\t(devel)\t\ndep\tgithub.com/apenwarr/fixconsole\tv0.0.0-20191012055117-5a9f6489cc29\th1:muXWUcay7DDy1/hEQWrYlBy+g0EuwT70sBHg65SeUc4=\ndep\tgithub....
-	for line := range strings.SplitSeq(info, "\n") {
-		if goPkg, ok := strings.CutPrefix(line, "path\t"); ok { // like "tailscale.com/cmd/tailscale"
-			ret = path.Base(goPkg) // goPkg is always forward slashes; use path, not filepath
-			break
-		}
-	}
+	// bi.Path is the main package import path, e.g.
+	// "tailscale.com/cmd/tailscaled". Go import paths are always
+	// forward-slash separated, so use path.Base, not filepath.Base.
+	ret := path.Base(bi.Path)
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" && strings.HasPrefix(ret, "gui") && checkPreppedExeNameForGUI(fallbackName) {
-		// The GUI binary for internal build system packaging reasons
-		// has a path of "tailscale.io/win/gui".
-		// Ignore that name and use fallbackName instead.
-		return fallbackName
-	}
-	if ret == "" {
+		// The GUI binary, for internal build-system packaging reasons,
+		// has a path of "tailscale.io/win/gui". Ignore that name and
+		// use fallbackName instead.
 		return fallbackName
 	}
 	return ret
-}
-
-// findModuleInfo returns the Go module info from the executable file.
-func findModuleInfo(file string) (s string, err error) {
-	f, err := os.Open(file)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	defer f.Close()
-	// Scan through f until we find infoStart.
-	buf := make([]byte, 65536)
-	start, err := findOffset(f, buf, infoStart)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	start += int64(len(infoStart))
-	// Seek to the end of infoStart and scan for infoEnd.
-	_, err = f.Seek(start, io.SeekStart)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	end, err := findOffset(f, buf, infoEnd)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	length := end - start
-	// As of Aug 2021, tailscaled's mod info was about 2k.
-	if length > int64(len(buf)) {
-		return "", errors.New("mod info too large")
-	}
-	// We have located modinfo. Read it into buf.
-	buf = buf[:length]
-	_, err = f.Seek(start, io.SeekStart)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	_, err = io.ReadFull(f, buf)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-	return string(buf), nil
-}
-
-// findOffset finds the absolute offset of needle in f,
-// starting at f's current read position,
-// using temporary buffer buf.
-func findOffset(f *os.File, buf, needle []byte) (int64, error) {
-	for {
-		// Fill buf and look within it.
-		n, err := f.Read(buf)
-		if err != nil {
-			return -1, err
-		}
-		i := bytes.Index(buf[:n], needle)
-		if i < 0 {
-			// Not found. Rewind a little bit in case we happened to end halfway through needle.
-			rewind, err := f.Seek(int64(-len(needle)), io.SeekCurrent)
-			if err != nil {
-				return -1, err
-			}
-			// If we're at EOF and rewound exactly len(needle) bytes, return io.EOF.
-			_, err = f.ReadAt(buf[:1], rewind+int64(len(needle)))
-			if err == io.EOF {
-				return -1, err
-			}
-			continue
-		}
-		// Found! Figure out exactly where.
-		cur, err := f.Seek(0, io.SeekCurrent)
-		if err != nil {
-			return -1, err
-		}
-		return cur - int64(n) + int64(i), nil
-	}
-}
-
-// These constants are taken from rsc.io/goversion.
-
-var (
-	infoStart, _ = hex.DecodeString("3077af0c9274080241e1c107e6d618e6")
-	infoEnd, _   = hex.DecodeString("f932433186182072008242104116d8f2")
-)
+})
diff --git a/version/cmdname_test.go b/version/cmdname_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..94f4e984d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/version/cmdname_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+// Copyright (c) Tailscale Inc & contributors
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
+
+//go:build !ios
+
+package version_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"tailscale.com/tstest"
+	"tailscale.com/version"
+)
+
+// TestCmdNameFromBuildInfo asserts that CmdName recovers its result from the
+// running binary's embedded Go module info (via runtime/debug.ReadBuildInfo)
+// rather than returning the os.Executable-based fallback. When this test is
+// run under "go test tailscale.com/version", the test binary's embedded
+// build-info Path is "tailscale.com/version.test", so CmdName should return
+// "version.test". The on-disk basename of the test binary (something like
+// "version.test" in a go-build temp dir with random suffixes) is also
+// typically "version.test", but the import-path derivation is what we care
+// about: it is the only route by which a binary installed under an arbitrary
+// name (e.g. "tailscaled-linux-amd64") still reports itself as "tailscaled".
+func TestCmdNameFromBuildInfo(t *testing.T) {
+	if got, want := version.CmdName(), "version.test"; got != want {
+		t.Errorf("CmdName() = %q, want %q", got, want)
+	}
+}
+
+// BenchmarkCmdName measures the cost of the public, memoized CmdName.
+// After a one-time warmup (which itself does no filesystem I/O, just an
+// in-memory string lookup), this should be a trivial atomic load with zero
+// allocations.
+func BenchmarkCmdName(b *testing.B) {
+	_ = version.CmdName() // prime
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+	b.ResetTimer()
+	for range b.N {
+		_ = version.CmdName()
+	}
+}
+
+// TestCmdNameNoAllocs asserts that the public CmdName, once primed, performs
+// no allocations. This guards against regressions that reintroduce per-call
+// binary parsing.
+func TestCmdNameNoAllocs(t *testing.T) {
+	_ = version.CmdName() // prime
+	if err := tstest.MinAllocsPerRun(t, 0, func() {
+		_ = version.CmdName()
+	}); err != nil {
+		t.Error(err)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/version/export_test.go b/version/export_test.go
index ec43ad332..8500bf261 100644
--- a/version/export_test.go
+++ b/version/export_test.go
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@
 package version
 
 var (
-	ExportParse          = parse
-	ExportFindModuleInfo = findModuleInfo
-	ExportCmdName        = cmdName
+	ExportParse = parse
 )
 
 type (
diff --git a/version/modinfo_test.go b/version/modinfo_test.go
deleted file mode 100644
index ef75ce077..000000000
--- a/version/modinfo_test.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright (c) Tailscale Inc & contributors
-// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
-
-package version_test
-
-import (
-	"flag"
-	"os/exec"
-	"path/filepath"
-	"strings"
-	"testing"
-
-	"tailscale.com/version"
-)
-
-var (
-	findModuleInfo = version.ExportFindModuleInfo
-	cmdName        = version.ExportCmdName
-)
-
-func TestFindModuleInfo(t *testing.T) {
-	dir := t.TempDir()
-	name := filepath.Join(dir, "tailscaled-version-test")
-	out, err := exec.Command("go", "build", "-o", name, "tailscale.com/cmd/tailscaled").CombinedOutput()
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("failed to build tailscaled: %v\n%s", err, out)
-	}
-	modinfo, err := findModuleInfo(name)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	prefix := "path\ttailscale.com/cmd/tailscaled\nmod\ttailscale.com"
-	if !strings.HasPrefix(modinfo, prefix) {
-		t.Errorf("unexpected modinfo contents %q", modinfo)
-	}
-}
-
-var findModuleInfoName = flag.String("module-info-file", "", "if non-empty, test findModuleInfo against this filename")
-
-func TestFindModuleInfoManual(t *testing.T) {
-	exe := *findModuleInfoName
-	if exe == "" {
-		t.Skip("skipping without --module-info-file filename")
-	}
-	cmd := cmdName(exe)
-	mod, err := findModuleInfo(exe)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	t.Logf("Got %q from: %s", cmd, mod)
-}