diff --git a/doc/stdenv.xml b/doc/stdenv.xml
index 68441ea9393..44a0e4601fc 100644
--- a/doc/stdenv.xml
+++ b/doc/stdenv.xml
@@ -1401,8 +1401,15 @@ These can be toggled using the stdenv.mkDerivation parameters
hardeningDisable and hardeningEnable.
-The following flags are enabled by default and might require disabling
-if the program to package is incompatible.
+
+Both parameters take a list of flags as strings. The special
+"all" flag can be passed to hardeningDisable
+to turn off all hardening. These flags can also be used as environment variables
+for testing or development purposes.
+
+
+The following flags are enabled by default and might require disabling with
+hardeningDisable if the program to package is incompatible.
@@ -1563,7 +1570,8 @@ intel_drv.so: undefined symbol: vgaHWFreeHWRec
The following flags are disabled by default and should be enabled
-for packages that take untrusted input, like network services.
+with hardeningEnable for packages that take untrusted
+input like network services.