diff --git a/package/shadow/Config.in b/package/shadow/Config.in
index b08b06457b..987605c7fa 100644
--- a/package/shadow/Config.in
+++ b/package/shadow/Config.in
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ menuconfig BR2_PACKAGE_SHADOW
 	depends on !BR2_STATIC_LIBS
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HEADERS_AT_LEAST_4_14
 	depends on !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_UCLIBC # reallocarray, explicit_bzero
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBXCRYPT if BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_GLIBC
 	help
 	  Utilities to deal with user accounts.
 
diff --git a/package/shadow/shadow.mk b/package/shadow/shadow.mk
index 2092903b2d..491f271330 100644
--- a/package/shadow/shadow.mk
+++ b/package/shadow/shadow.mk
@@ -88,6 +88,10 @@ else
 SHADOW_CONF_OPTS += --without-selinux
 endif
 
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBXCRYPT),y)
+SHADOW_DEPENDENCIES += libxcrypt
+endif
+
 # linux-pam is also used without account-tools-setuid enabled
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_LINUX_PAM),y)
 SHADOW_CONF_OPTS += --with-libpam