diff --git a/tools/cmake/gdbinit.cmake b/tools/cmake/gdbinit.cmake
index ceda997694f..41b7a889401 100644
--- a/tools/cmake/gdbinit.cmake
+++ b/tools/cmake/gdbinit.cmake
@@ -38,8 +38,9 @@ function(__generate_gdbinit)
     set(symbols_gdbinit_path ${gdbinit_dir}/symbols)
     set(py_extensions_gdbinit_path ${gdbinit_dir}/py_extensions)
     set(connect_gdbinit_path ${gdbinit_dir}/connect)
-    idf_build_get_property(PROJECT_EXECUTABLE EXECUTABLE)
-    set(application_elf ${BUILD_DIR}/${PROJECT_EXECUTABLE})
+    # EXECUTABLE is a CMake target name; the on-disk elf is EXECUTABLE_NAME + ".elf".
+    idf_build_get_property(PROJECT_EXECUTABLE_NAME EXECUTABLE_NAME)
+    set(application_elf ${BUILD_DIR}/${PROJECT_EXECUTABLE_NAME}.elf)
 
     file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${gdbinit_dir})