diff --git a/lib/bin.js b/lib/bin.js
index a7503e7ac..fc369c0b2 100644
--- a/lib/bin.js
+++ b/lib/bin.js
@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@ import { exec } from './index.js';
 import { log } from './log.js';
 
 async function main () {
+  if (process.env.CHDIR &&
+      process.env.CHDIR !== process.cwd()) {
+    // allow to override cwd by CHDIR env var
+    // https://github.com/resin-io/etcher/pull/1713
+    process.chdir(process.env.CHDIR);
+  }
+
   await exec(process.argv.slice(2));
 }
 
diff --git a/test/test-50-chdir-env-var/main.js b/test/test-50-chdir-env-var/main.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..05f91ebfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test-50-chdir-env-var/main.js
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+'use strict';
+
+const path = require('path');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const utils = require('../utils.js');
+
+assert(!module.parent);
+assert(__dirname === process.cwd());
+
+const target = process.argv[2] || 'host';
+const input = './test-x-index.js';
+const output = './run-time/test-output.exe';
+
+let right;
+
+utils.pkg.sync([
+  '--target', target,
+  '--output', output, input
+], { env: {
+  CHDIR: 'source',
+  PATH: process.env.PATH
+} });
+
+right = utils.spawn.sync(
+  './' + path.basename(output), [],
+  { cwd: path.dirname('source/' + output) }
+);
+
+assert.equal(right, 'ok\n');
+utils.vacuum.sync(path.dirname('source/' + output));
diff --git a/test/test-50-chdir-env-var/source/test-x-index.js b/test/test-50-chdir-env-var/source/test-x-index.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..faea9b6d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test-50-chdir-env-var/source/test-x-index.js
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+'use strict';
+
+console.log('ok');