diff --git a/.github/workflows/codeql.yml b/.github/workflows/codeql.yml
index 5d4007ceb3..9dd4f6b649 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/codeql.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/codeql.yml
@@ -50,7 +50,14 @@ jobs:
         languages: ${{ matrix.language }}
         config-file: ./.github/codeql-config.yml
 
-    - run: sudo -E .github/workflows/unit-tests.sh SETUP
+    - run: |
+        sudo -E .github/workflows/unit-tests.sh SETUP
+        # TODO: drop after we switch to ubuntu 26.04
+        bpftool_binary=$(find /usr/lib/linux-tools/ /usr/lib/linux-tools-* -name 'bpftool' -perm /u=x 2>/dev/null | sort -r | head -n1)
+        if [ -n "$bpftool_binary" ]; then
+          sudo rm -f /usr/bin/bpftool
+          sudo ln -s "$bpftool_binary" /usr/bin/
+        fi
 
     - name: Autobuild
       uses: github/codeql-action/autobuild@51f77329afa6477de8c49fc9c7046c15b9a4e79d