diff --git a/pkg/shim/proc/BUILD b/pkg/shim/proc/BUILD
index eec851936..653596ea5 100644
--- a/pkg/shim/proc/BUILD
+++ b/pkg/shim/proc/BUILD
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ go_library(
         "//pkg/atomicbitops",
         "//pkg/cleanup",
         "//pkg/shim/runsc",
+        "//pkg/shim/utils",
         "@com_github_containerd_console//:go_default_library",
         "@com_github_containerd_containerd//errdefs:go_default_library",
         "@com_github_containerd_containerd//log:go_default_library",
diff --git a/pkg/shim/proc/init.go b/pkg/shim/proc/init.go
index d01ad61ac..fcdc8e2bc 100644
--- a/pkg/shim/proc/init.go
+++ b/pkg/shim/proc/init.go
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ import (
 	specs "github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/specs-go"
 	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
 	"gvisor.dev/gvisor/pkg/shim/runsc"
+	"gvisor.dev/gvisor/pkg/shim/utils"
 )
 
 const statusStopped = "stopped"
@@ -74,12 +75,11 @@ type Init struct {
 	IoGID    int
 	Sandbox  bool
 	UserLog  string
-	PanicLog string
 	Monitor  ProcessMonitor
 }
 
 // NewRunsc returns a new runsc instance for a process.
-func NewRunsc(root, path, namespace, runtime string, config map[string]string) *runsc.Runsc {
+func NewRunsc(root, path, namespace, runtime string, config map[string]string, spec *specs.Spec) *runsc.Runsc {
 	if root == "" {
 		root = RunscRoot
 	}
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ func NewRunsc(root, path, namespace, runtime string, config map[string]string) *
 		PdeathSignal: unix.SIGKILL,
 		Log:          filepath.Join(path, "log.json"),
 		LogFormat:    runc.JSON,
+		PanicLog:     utils.PanicLogPath(spec),
 		Root:         filepath.Join(root, namespace),
 		Config:       config,
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/shim/runsc/runsc.go b/pkg/shim/runsc/runsc.go
index a3404744c..459f3f8d2 100644
--- a/pkg/shim/runsc/runsc.go
+++ b/pkg/shim/runsc/runsc.go
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ type Runsc struct {
 	Root         string
 	Log          string
 	LogFormat    runc.Format
+	PanicLog     string
 	Config       map[string]string
 }
 
@@ -108,10 +109,6 @@ type CreateOpts struct {
 
 	// UserLog is a path to where runsc user log should be generated.
 	UserLog string
-
-	// PanicLog is a path to where runsc will output its panic message
-	// (in case it does panic).
-	PanicLog string
 }
 
 func (o *CreateOpts) args() (out []string, err error) {
@@ -128,9 +125,6 @@ func (o *CreateOpts) args() (out []string, err error) {
 	if o.UserLog != "" {
 		out = append(out, "--user-log", o.UserLog)
 	}
-	if o.PanicLog != "" {
-		out = append(out, "--panic-log", o.PanicLog)
-	}
 	return out, nil
 }
 
@@ -493,6 +487,9 @@ func (r *Runsc) args() []string {
 	if r.LogFormat != "" {
 		args = append(args, fmt.Sprintf("--log-format=%s", r.LogFormat))
 	}
+	if r.PanicLog != "" {
+		args = append(args, fmt.Sprintf("--panic-log=%s", r.PanicLog))
+	}
 	for k, v := range r.Config {
 		args = append(args, fmt.Sprintf("--%s=%s", k, v))
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/shim/service.go b/pkg/shim/service.go
index 35d969d3a..a6904e1ae 100644
--- a/pkg/shim/service.go
+++ b/pkg/shim/service.go
@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ func (s *service) Cleanup(ctx context.Context) (*taskAPI.DeleteResponse, error)
 	if err := st.load(path); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	r := proc.NewRunsc(s.opts.Root, path, ns, st.Options.BinaryName, nil)
+	r := proc.NewRunsc(s.opts.Root, path, ns, st.Options.BinaryName, nil, nil)
 
 	if err := r.Delete(ctx, s.id, &runsc.DeleteOpts{
 		Force: true,
@@ -1082,7 +1082,7 @@ func newInit(path, workDir, namespace string, platform stdio.Platform, r *proc.C
 	}
 
 	runsc.FormatRunscPaths(r.ID, options.RunscConfig)
-	runtime := proc.NewRunsc(options.Root, path, namespace, options.BinaryName, options.RunscConfig)
+	runtime := proc.NewRunsc(options.Root, path, namespace, options.BinaryName, options.RunscConfig, spec)
 	p := proc.New(r.ID, runtime, stdio.Stdio{
 		Stdin:    r.Stdin,
 		Stdout:   r.Stdout,
@@ -1097,7 +1097,6 @@ func newInit(path, workDir, namespace string, platform stdio.Platform, r *proc.C
 	p.IoGID = int(options.IoGID)
 	p.Sandbox = specutils.SpecContainerType(spec) == specutils.ContainerTypeSandbox
 	p.UserLog = utils.UserLogPath(spec)
-	p.PanicLog = utils.PanicLogPath(spec)
 	p.Monitor = reaper.Default
 	return p, nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/shim/utils/utils.go b/pkg/shim/utils/utils.go
index 10c7340e3..8ccc4a706 100644
--- a/pkg/shim/utils/utils.go
+++ b/pkg/shim/utils/utils.go
@@ -64,6 +64,9 @@ func UserLogPath(spec *specs.Spec) string {
 
 // PanicLogPath gets the panic log path from OCI annotation.
 func PanicLogPath(spec *specs.Spec) string {
+	if spec == nil {
+		return ""
+	}
 	sandboxLogDir := spec.Annotations[sandboxLogDirAnnotation]
 	if sandboxLogDir == "" {
 		return ""