diff --git a/config/deb.am b/config/deb.am
index 4ed3c17aa..cdbdbecb3 100644
--- a/config/deb.am
+++ b/config/deb.am
@@ -14,7 +14,19 @@ deb-local:
 	"*** package for your distribution which provides ${ALIEN},\n" \
 	"*** re-run configure, and try again.\n"; \
 		exit 1; \
-	fi)
+	fi; \
+        if test "${ALIEN_MAJOR}" = "8" && \
+           test "${ALIEN_MINOR}" = "95"; then \
+        if test "${ALIEN_POINT}" = "1" || \
+           test "${ALIEN_POINT}" = "2" || \
+           test "${ALIEN_POINT}" = "3"; then \
+                /bin/echo -e "\n" \
+        "*** Installed version of ${ALIEN} is known to be broken;\n" \
+        "*** attempting to generate debs will fail! See\n" \
+        "*** https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/issues/11650 for details.\n"; \
+                exit 1; \
+        fi; \
+        fi)
 
 deb-kmod: deb-local rpm-kmod
 	name=${PACKAGE}; \
diff --git a/config/zfs-build.m4 b/config/zfs-build.m4
index cd5996c04..cee5c87e7 100644
--- a/config/zfs-build.m4
+++ b/config/zfs-build.m4
@@ -437,6 +437,9 @@ AC_DEFUN([ZFS_AC_ALIEN], [
 	AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether $ALIEN is available])
 	AS_IF([tmp=$($ALIEN --version 2>/dev/null)], [
 		ALIEN_VERSION=$(echo $tmp | $AWK '{ print $[3] }')
+		ALIEN_MAJOR=$(echo ${ALIEN_VERSION} | $AWK -F'.' '{ print $[1] }')
+		ALIEN_MINOR=$(echo ${ALIEN_VERSION} | $AWK -F'.' '{ print $[2] }')
+		ALIEN_POINT=$(echo ${ALIEN_VERSION} | $AWK -F'.' '{ print $[3] }')
 		HAVE_ALIEN=yes
 		AC_MSG_RESULT([$HAVE_ALIEN ($ALIEN_VERSION)])
 	],[
@@ -447,6 +450,9 @@ AC_DEFUN([ZFS_AC_ALIEN], [
 	AC_SUBST(HAVE_ALIEN)
 	AC_SUBST(ALIEN)
 	AC_SUBST(ALIEN_VERSION)
+	AC_SUBST(ALIEN_MAJOR)
+	AC_SUBST(ALIEN_MINOR)
+	AC_SUBST(ALIEN_POINT)
 ])
 
 dnl #