diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b533465b9c9..ebf5cd92cda 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -499,9 +499,13 @@ if(WITH_MGR)
   # Please specify 3 or 3.[0-7] if you want to build with python3 support.
   # FindPython thinks they belong to different families.
   set(MGR_PYTHON_VERSION "2.7" CACHE
-    STRING "minimal required version of python runtime for running mgr plugins. ")
-  find_package(Python ${MGR_PYTHON_VERSION} REQUIRED
+    STRING "required version of python runtime for running mgr plugins. ")
+  if(NOT MGR_PYTHON_VERSION MATCHES "^[23]$")
+    set(find_python_exact "EXACT")
+  endif()
+  find_package(Python ${MGR_PYTHON_VERSION} ${find_python_exact} REQUIRED
     COMPONENTS Interpreter Development)
+  unset(find_python_exact)
   set(MGR_PYTHON_EXECUTABLE ${Python_EXECUTABLE})
   set(MGR_PYTHON_LIBRARIES ${Python_LIBRARIES})
   set(MGR_PYTHON_VERSION_MAJOR ${Python_VERSION_MAJOR})
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index d1334bda844..d945268f41f 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -240,8 +240,12 @@ if(WITH_PYTHON3)
   if(WITH_PYTHON3 MATCHES "^(1|ON|YES|TRUE|Y)$")
     set(WITH_PYTHON3 "3")
   endif()
-  find_package(Python3 ${WITH_PYTHON3} REQUIRED
+  if(NOT WITH_PYTHON3 STREQUAL "3")
+    set(find_python3_exact "EXACT")
+  endif()
+  find_package(Python3 ${WITH_PYTHON3} ${find_python3_exact} REQUIRED
     COMPONENTS Interpreter Development)
+  unset(find_python3_exact)
 endif()
 
 # the major version of the python bindings as a dependency of other