diff --git a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/fs-sink.hh b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/fs-sink.hh
index 60e8441dd..bd9c7205f 100644
--- a/src/libutil/include/nix/util/fs-sink.hh
+++ b/src/libutil/include/nix/util/fs-sink.hh
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ namespace nix {
  *
  * See `FileSystemObjectSink::createRegularFile`.
  */
-struct CreateRegularFileSink : Sink
+struct CreateRegularFileSink : virtual Sink
 {
     /**
      * If set to true, the sink will not be called with the contents
diff --git a/src/nix/cat.cc b/src/nix/cat.cc
index f0dfc3ee6..c1d73f2a2 100644
--- a/src/nix/cat.cc
+++ b/src/nix/cat.cc
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #include "nix/cmd/command.hh"
 #include "nix/store/store-api.hh"
+#include "nix/util/archive.hh"
 #include "nix/util/nar-accessor.hh"
 #include "nix/util/serialise.hh"
 #include "nix/util/source-accessor.hh"
@@ -79,7 +80,40 @@ struct CmdCatNar : StoreCommand, MixCat
         if (!fd)
             throw SysError("opening NAR file '%s'", narPath);
         auto source = FdSource{fd.get()};
-        cat(makeLazyNarAccessor(source, seekableGetNarBytes(fd.get())), CanonPath{path});
+
+        struct CatRegularFileSink : NullFileSystemObjectSink
+        {
+            CanonPath neededPath = CanonPath::root;
+            bool found = false;
+
+            void createRegularFile(const CanonPath & path, std::function<void(CreateRegularFileSink &)> crf) override
+            {
+                struct : CreateRegularFileSink, FdSink
+                {
+                    void isExecutable() override {}
+                } crfSink;
+
+                crfSink.fd = INVALID_DESCRIPTOR;
+
+                if (path == neededPath) {
+                    logger->stop();
+                    crfSink.skipContents = false;
+                    crfSink.fd = STDOUT_FILENO;
+                    found = true;
+                } else {
+                    crfSink.skipContents = true;
+                }
+
+                crf(crfSink);
+            }
+        } sink;
+
+        sink.neededPath = CanonPath(path);
+        /* NOTE: We still parse the whole file to validate that it's a correct NAR. */
+        parseDump(sink, source);
+
+        if (!sink.found)
+            throw Error("NAR does not contain regular file '%1%'", path);
     }
 };
 
diff --git a/tests/functional/nar-access.sh b/tests/functional/nar-access.sh
index 2b0a6a329..cd419b4ee 100755
--- a/tests/functional/nar-access.sh
+++ b/tests/functional/nar-access.sh
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ diff -u data.cat-nar "$storePath/foo/data"
 # Check that file contents of baz match.
 nix nar cat "$narFile" /foo/baz > baz.cat-nar
 diff -u baz.cat-nar "$storePath/foo/baz"
+nix nar cat /dev/stdin /foo/baz < "$narFile" > baz.cat-nar-pipe
+expect 1 nix nar cat "$narFile" /foo/baz/doesntexist 2>&1 | grep "NAR does not contain regular file '/foo/baz/doesntexist'"
 
 nix store cat "$storePath/foo/baz" > baz.cat-nar
 diff -u baz.cat-nar "$storePath/foo/baz"