diff --git a/cmake/kconfig.cmake b/cmake/kconfig.cmake
index 898f17c0b5..8c5f9807a0 100644
--- a/cmake/kconfig.cmake
+++ b/cmake/kconfig.cmake
@@ -1,8 +1,14 @@
 set(BOARD_DEFCONFIG ${PX4_CONFIG_FILE} CACHE FILEPATH "path to defconfig" FORCE)
 set(BOARD_CONFIG ${PX4_BINARY_DIR}/boardconfig CACHE FILEPATH "path to config" FORCE)
 
-execute_process(COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} -c "import menuconfig" RESULT_VARIABLE ret)
-if(ret EQUAL "1")
+# Verify kconfiglib presence by importing the package itself rather than
+# the `menuconfig` entry point. `menuconfig` pulls in the standard
+# `curses` module which is not shipped on every Python install (e.g. the
+# setup-python interpreter on Windows runners, or some hostedtoolcache
+# Pythons on macOS), and we only need kconfiglib for non-interactive
+# config generation here.
+execute_process(COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} -c "import kconfiglib" RESULT_VARIABLE ret)
+if(NOT ret EQUAL "0")
 	message(FATAL_ERROR "kconfiglib is not installed or not in PATH\n"
 				"please install using \"pip3 install kconfiglib\"\n")
 endif()