diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c9e595b7c0a..be4a72b21ec 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ and this project adheres to
   Vsock not notifying guest about `TRANSPORT_RESET_EVENT` event after snapshot
   restore. This resulted in guest waiting indefinitely on a connection which was
   reset during snapshot creation.
+- [#4790](https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/pull/4790): v1.9.0
+  was missing most of the debugging information in the debuginfo file, due to a
+  change in the Cargo defaults. This has been corrected.
 
 ## \[1.9.0\]
 
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 1a5187f4f2f..914c4cdc87c 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -27,3 +27,7 @@ panic = "abort"
 [profile.release]
 panic = "abort"
 lto = true
+strip = "none"
+
+[profile.bench]
+strip = "debuginfo"
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_binary.py b/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_binary.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..67181bd3edb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_binary.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Copyright 2024 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+"""Tests to check several aspects of the binaries"""
+
+import re
+import subprocess
+
+import pytest
+
+from framework import utils
+
+
+@pytest.mark.timeout(500)
+def test_firecracker_binary_static_linking(microvm_factory):
+    """
+    Test to make sure the firecracker binary is statically linked.
+    """
+    fc_binary_path = microvm_factory.fc_binary_path
+    _, stdout, stderr = utils.check_output(f"file {fc_binary_path}")
+    assert "" in stderr
+    # expected "statically linked" for aarch64 and
+    # "static-pie linked" for x86_64
+    assert "statically linked" in stdout or "static-pie linked" in stdout
+
+
+def test_release_debuginfo(microvm_factory):
+    """Ensure the debuginfo file has the right ELF sections"""
+    fc_binary = microvm_factory.fc_binary_path
+    debuginfo = fc_binary.with_suffix(".debug")
+    stdout = subprocess.check_output(
+        ["readelf", "-S", str(debuginfo)],
+        encoding="ascii",
+    )
+    matches = {
+        match[0] for match in re.findall(r"\[..] (\.(\w|\.)+)", stdout, re.MULTILINE)
+    }
+    needed_sections = {
+        ".debug_aranges",
+        ".debug_info",
+        ".debug_abbrev",
+        ".debug_line",
+        ".debug_frame",
+        ".debug_str",
+        ".debug_ranges",
+    }
+    missing_sections = needed_sections - matches
+    assert missing_sections == set()
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_binary_static_linking.py b/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_binary_static_linking.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 1c277a4d00b..00000000000
--- a/tests/integration_tests/functional/test_binary_static_linking.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright 2019 Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
-"""Tests to check if the release binary is statically linked.
-
-"""
-
-import pytest
-
-from framework import utils
-
-
-@pytest.mark.timeout(500)
-def test_firecracker_binary_static_linking(microvm_factory):
-    """
-    Test to make sure the firecracker binary is statically linked.
-    """
-    fc_binary_path = microvm_factory.fc_binary_path
-    _, stdout, stderr = utils.check_output(f"file {fc_binary_path}")
-    assert "" in stderr
-    # expected "statically linked" for aarch64 and
-    # "static-pie linked" for x86_64
-    assert "statically linked" in stdout or "static-pie linked" in stdout