diff --git a/scripts/cadical_CMakeLists.txt b/scripts/cadical_CMakeLists.txt
index c3c0343920e..eaa30eb8643 100644
--- a/scripts/cadical_CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/scripts/cadical_CMakeLists.txt
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ add_library(cadical ${sources})
 
 # Pass -DNBUILD to disable including the version information, which is not
 # needed since cbmc doesn't run the cadical binary
-target_compile_options(cadical PUBLIC -DNBUILD -DNFLEXIBLE)
+target_compile_options(cadical PRIVATE -DNBUILD -DNFLEXIBLE -DNDEBUG)
 
 set_target_properties(
     cadical
diff --git a/src/solvers/Makefile b/src/solvers/Makefile
index ad1b777b6a8..71c7a01b3ed 100644
--- a/src/solvers/Makefile
+++ b/src/solvers/Makefile
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ solvers$(LIBEXT): $(OBJ) $(SOLVER_LIB)
 	$(LINKLIB)
 
 ../../cadical/build/libcadical$(LIBEXT):
-	$(MAKE) $(MAKEARGS) -C $(CADICAL)/build libcadical.a CXX="$(CXX)" CXXFLAGS="$(CP_CXXFLAGS) -DNFLEXIBLE"
+	$(MAKE) $(MAKEARGS) -C $(CADICAL)/build libcadical.a CXX="$(CXX)" CXXFLAGS="$(CP_CXXFLAGS) -DNFLEXIBLE -DNDEBUG"
 
 -include smt2/smt2_solver$(DEPEXT)