diff --git a/projects/cairo/Dockerfile b/projects/cairo/Dockerfile
index fe5298dd1ac3..69db9d2e3229 100644
--- a/projects/cairo/Dockerfile
+++ b/projects/cairo/Dockerfile
@@ -13,16 +13,31 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 ################################################################################
-FROM gcr.io/oss-fuzz-base/base-builder
+FROM gcr.io/oss-fuzz-base/base-builder:ubuntu-24-04
 RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get install -y python3-pip gtk-doc-tools libffi-dev autotools-dev libtool gperf
-RUN pip3 install -U meson==1.4.0 ninja packaging
+RUN pip3 install -U meson==1.6.0 ninja packaging
 
-RUN git clone --depth 1 git://git.sv.nongnu.org/freetype/freetype2.git
-RUN git clone --depth 1 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib
 RUN git clone --depth 1 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/cairo/cairo.git && \
     zip -q $SRC/cairo_seed_corpus.zip $SRC/cairo/test/reference/* && \
     zip -q $SRC/svg-render-fuzzer_seed_corpus.zip $SRC/cairo/test/svg/*.svg
+RUN cd cairo && meson subprojects download
+
+# pre-install all dependencies into /deps to exclude them from fuzz-introspector
+RUN mkdir /deps && cd cairo && \
+    meson subprojects foreach \
+        meson setup \
+            --prefix=/deps \
+            --libdir=lib \
+            --default-library=static \
+            -Db_lundef=false \
+            _builddir && \
+    meson subprojects foreach \
+        ninja -C _builddir && \
+    meson subprojects foreach \
+        ninja -C _builddir install
+# *convince* fuzz-introspector not to analyze all harnesses in subprojects
+RUN rm -rf cairo/subprojects/*
 
 ADD https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google/fuzzing/master/dictionaries/png.dict $SRC/cairo.dict
 ADD https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google/fuzzing/master/dictionaries/svg.dict $SRC/svg-render-fuzzer.dict
diff --git a/projects/cairo/build.sh b/projects/cairo/build.sh
index 50c972318ffb..a64d8e6e72df 100755
--- a/projects/cairo/build.sh
+++ b/projects/cairo/build.sh
@@ -14,47 +14,53 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 ################################################################################
+
+# For fuzz-introspector, exclude all external code from reports
+export FUZZ_INTROSPECTOR_CONFIG=$SRC/fuzz_introspector_exclusion.config
+cat > $FUZZ_INTROSPECTOR_CONFIG <<EOF
+FILES_TO_AVOID
+subprojects
+EOF
+
 PREFIX=$WORK/prefix
-mkdir -p $PREFIX
+CAIRO_DEPS=/deps
 
 export PKG_CONFIG="`which pkg-config` --static"
-export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig
-export PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH
-
-BUILD=$WORK/build
+export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig:$CAIRO_DEPS/lib/pkgconfig
+export PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$CAIRO_DEPS/bin:$PATH
 
+# BUILD=$WORK/build
 rm -rf $WORK/*
-rm -rf $BUILD
-mkdir -p $BUILD
 
-# Build glib
-pushd $SRC/glib/
-meson \
-    setup \
-    --prefix=$PREFIX \
-    --libdir=lib \
-    --default-library=static \
-    -Db_lundef=false \
-    -Doss_fuzz=enabled \
-    -Dlibmount=disabled \
-    _builddir
-ninja -C _builddir
-ninja -C _builddir install
-popd
+# workaround: tell meson to use gold on fuzz-introspector builds
+# https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz/pull/7583#issuecomment-1104011067
+if [[ "$SANITIZER" == introspector ]]; then
+    # -fuse-ld=gold can't be passed via CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS/LDFLAGS due to
+    # https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/6377 and
+    # https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/6377#issuecomment-575977919
+    MESON_CFLAGS="${CFLAGS//-fuse-ld=gold/ }"
+    MESON_CXXFLAGS="${CXXFLAGS//-fuse-ld=gold/ }"
+    MESON_OPTIONS="-Db_lto=true"
 
-pushd $SRC/freetype2
-./autogen.sh
-./configure --prefix="$PREFIX" --disable-shared PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
-make -j$(nproc)
-make install
+    export CC_LD=gold
+    export CXX_LD=gold
+else
+    MESON_CFLAGS=$CFLAGS
+    MESON_CXXFLAGS=$CXXFLAGS
+    MESON_OPTIONS=""
+fi
 
 # Build cairo
 pushd $SRC/cairo
-CFLAGS="-DDEBUG_SVG_RENDER $CFLAGS" meson \
+CFLAGS="-DDEBUG_SVG_RENDER $MESON_CFLAGS" \
+CXXFLAGS=$MESON_CXXFLAGS meson \
     setup \
     --prefix=$PREFIX \
     --libdir=lib \
     --default-library=static \
+    -Db_lundef=false \
+    --wrap-mode=nofallback \
+    $MESON_OPTIONS \
     _builddir
 ninja -C _builddir
 ninja -C _builddir install
@@ -75,7 +81,7 @@ fi
 PREDEPS_LDFLAGS="-Wl,-Bdynamic -ldl -lm -lc -pthread -lrt -lpthread"
 DEPS="gmodule-2.0 glib-2.0 gio-2.0 gobject-2.0 freetype2 cairo cairo-gobject cairo-script-interpreter"
 BUILD_CFLAGS="$CFLAGS `pkg-config --static --cflags $DEPS` -I$SRC/fuzz"
-BUILD_LDFLAGS="-Wl,-static `pkg-config --static --libs $DEPS`"
+BUILD_LDFLAGS="`pkg-config --static --libs $DEPS`"
 
 fuzzers=$(find $SRC/fuzz/ -name "*_fuzzer.c")
 for f in $fuzzers ; do
@@ -104,3 +110,6 @@ for f in $SRC/cairo/test/svg/fuzzer/svg-render-fuzzer.c ; do
     $LIB_FUZZING_ENGINE \
     -Wl,-Bdynamic
 done
+
+# copy deps into $OUT so fuzz-introspector can see the header files
+rsync -avr $CAIRO_DEPS/ $OUT/deps
diff --git a/projects/cairo/project.yaml b/projects/cairo/project.yaml
index 701061b4ef44..c9029768a8d0 100644
--- a/projects/cairo/project.yaml
+++ b/projects/cairo/project.yaml
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ fuzzing_engines:
   - honggfuzz
   - libfuzzer
 
+base_os_version: ubuntu-24-04