diff --git a/pkgs/applications/virtualization/virtualbox/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/virtualization/virtualbox/default.nix
index 6dd7fd0f953b..fe19f1f4a3e0 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/virtualization/virtualbox/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/virtualization/virtualbox/default.nix
@@ -103,6 +103,8 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation {
       qtPluginPath = "${qtbase.bin}/${qtbase.qtPluginPrefix}:${qtsvg.bin}/${qtbase.qtPluginPrefix}:${qtwayland.bin}/${qtbase.qtPluginPrefix}";
     })
   ++ [
+    # NOTE: the patch for linux 5.11 can be removed when the next version of VirtualBox is released
+    ./linux-5-11.patch
     ./qtx11extras.patch
   ];
 
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/virtualization/virtualbox/linux-5-11.patch b/pkgs/applications/virtualization/virtualbox/linux-5-11.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..66b70bf0d97e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/virtualization/virtualbox/linux-5-11.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+diff --git a/src/VBox/HostDrivers/VBoxNetFlt/linux/VBoxNetFlt-linux.c b/src/VBox/HostDrivers/VBoxNetFlt/linux/VBoxNetFlt-linux.c
+index 7033b45..c8178a6 100644
+--- a/src/VBox/HostDrivers/VBoxNetFlt/linux/VBoxNetFlt-linux.c
++++ b/src/VBox/HostDrivers/VBoxNetFlt/linux/VBoxNetFlt-linux.c
+@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
+ #endif
+ #include <linux/netdevice.h>
+ #include <linux/etherdevice.h>
++#include <linux/ethtool.h>
+ #include <linux/rtnetlink.h>
+ #include <linux/miscdevice.h>
+ #include <linux/inetdevice.h>