diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/config.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/config.ts
index 6c65a2aaaa9012..fe019430605b75 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/config.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/config.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import path from 'node:path'
 import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url'
 import { promisify } from 'node:util'
 import { performance } from 'node:perf_hooks'
-import { builtinModules, createRequire } from 'node:module'
+import { createRequire } from 'node:module'
 import colors from 'picocolors'
 import type { Alias, AliasOptions } from 'dep-types/alias'
 import { build } from 'esbuild'
@@ -621,7 +621,7 @@ export const configDefaults = Object.freeze({
     dedupe: [],
     /** @experimental */
     noExternal: [],
-    // external
+    external: [],
     preserveSymlinks: false,
     alias: [],
   },
@@ -882,10 +882,7 @@ function resolveEnvironmentResolveOptions(
         consumer === 'client' || isSsrTargetWebworkerEnvironment
           ? DEFAULT_CLIENT_CONDITIONS
           : DEFAULT_SERVER_CONDITIONS.filter((c) => c !== 'browser'),
-      external:
-        consumer === 'server' && !isSsrTargetWebworkerEnvironment
-          ? builtinModules
-          : [],
+      enableBuiltinNoExternalCheck: !!isSsrTargetWebworkerEnvironment,
     },
     resolve ?? {},
   )
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/resolve.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/resolve.ts
index c7a113a2b31727..f75798b84abe8e 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/resolve.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/plugins/resolve.ts
@@ -96,6 +96,10 @@ export interface EnvironmentResolveOptions {
    * @experimental
    */
   external?: string[] | true
+  /**
+   * @internal
+   */
+  enableBuiltinNoExternalCheck?: boolean
 }
 
 export interface ResolveOptions extends EnvironmentResolveOptions {
@@ -169,8 +173,11 @@ interface ResolvePluginOptions {
 }
 
 export interface InternalResolveOptions
-  extends Required<ResolveOptions>,
-    ResolvePluginOptions {}
+  extends Required<Omit<ResolveOptions, 'enableBuiltinNoExternalCheck'>>,
+    ResolvePluginOptions {
+  /** @internal this is always optional for backward compat */
+  enableBuiltinNoExternalCheck?: boolean
+}
 
 // Defined ResolveOptions are used to overwrite the values for all environments
 // It is used when creating custom resolvers (for CSS, scanning, etc)
@@ -420,6 +427,7 @@ export function resolvePlugin(
         if (isBuiltin(id)) {
           if (currentEnvironmentOptions.consumer === 'server') {
             if (
+              options.enableBuiltinNoExternalCheck &&
               options.noExternal === true &&
               // if both noExternal and external are true, noExternal will take the higher priority and bundle it.
               // only if the id is explicitly listed in external, we will externalize it and skip this error.