diff --git a/cmake/OpenCVFindLibsGrfmt.cmake b/cmake/OpenCVFindLibsGrfmt.cmake
index 23ceb76753..52dd2fdbd4 100644
--- a/cmake/OpenCVFindLibsGrfmt.cmake
+++ b/cmake/OpenCVFindLibsGrfmt.cmake
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ if(NOT ZLIB_FOUND)
   set(ZLIB_INCLUDE_DIRS ${ZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR})
   set(ZLIB_LIBRARIES ${ZLIB_LIBRARY})
 
-  ocv_parse_header2(ZLIB "${${ZLIB_LIBRARY}_SOURCE_DIR}/zlib.h" ZLIB_VERSION)
+  ocv_parse_header_version(ZLIB "${${ZLIB_LIBRARY}_SOURCE_DIR}/zlib.h")
 endif()
 
 # --- libavif (optional) ---
diff --git a/cmake/OpenCVUtils.cmake b/cmake/OpenCVUtils.cmake
index 3f82550065..cddd2fc299 100644
--- a/cmake/OpenCVUtils.cmake
+++ b/cmake/OpenCVUtils.cmake
@@ -1430,6 +1430,18 @@ macro(ocv_parse_header2 LIBNAME HDR_PATH VARNAME)
   endif()
 endmacro()
 
+# set ${LIBNAME}_VERSION_STRING to ${LIBNAME}_VERSION without quotes
+macro(ocv_parse_header_version LIBNAME HDR_PATH)
+  ocv_clear_vars(${LIBNAME}_VERSION_STRING)
+  set(${LIBNAME}_H "")
+  if(EXISTS "${HDR_PATH}")
+    file(STRINGS "${HDR_PATH}" ${LIBNAME}_H REGEX "^#define[ \t]+${LIBNAME}_VERSION[ \t]+\"[^\"]*\".*$" LIMIT_COUNT 1)
+  endif()
+  if(${LIBNAME}_H)
+    string(REGEX REPLACE "^.*[ \t]${LIBNAME}_VERSION[ \t]+\"([0-9\.]+)\"$" "\\1" ${LIBNAME}_VERSION_STRING "${${LIBNAME}_H}")
+  endif()
+endmacro()
+
 ################################################################################################
 # short command to setup source group
 function(ocv_source_group group)