diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index bdbe20b4406..f8de68c1a6c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v8.2.0\...main[Check the HEAD diff]
 
 - Fix counter for number of events published in `httpjson` input. {pull}31993[31993]
 - Fix handling of Checkpoint event for R81. {issue}32380[32380] {pull}32458[32458]
+- Fix a hang on `apt-get update` stage in packaging. {pull}32580[32580]
 
 *Heartbeat*
 
diff --git a/dev-tools/mage/crossbuild.go b/dev-tools/mage/crossbuild.go
index 811b0c9a6b3..47e24d45a2d 100644
--- a/dev-tools/mage/crossbuild.go
+++ b/dev-tools/mage/crossbuild.go
@@ -296,6 +296,15 @@ func (b GolangCrossBuilder) Build() error {
 		verbose = "true"
 	}
 	var args []string
+	// There's a bug on certain debian versions:
+	// https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/debian-jessie-containers-have-extremely-low-performance/1272
+	// basically, apt-get has a bug where will try to iterate through every possible FD as set by the NOFILE ulimit.
+	// On certain docker installs, docker will set the ulimit to a value > 10^9, which means apt-get will take >1 hour.
+	// This runs across all possible debian platforms, since there's no real harm in it.
+	if strings.Contains(b.Platform, "debian") {
+		args = append(args, "--ulimit", "nofile=262144:262144")
+	}
+
 	if runtime.GOOS != "windows" {
 		args = append(args,
 			"--env", "EXEC_UID="+strconv.Itoa(os.Getuid()),