diff --git a/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk b/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk
index 159d411de8..3e54465ed7 100644
--- a/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk
+++ b/package/qt5/qt5base/qt5base.mk
@@ -230,8 +230,16 @@ else
 QT5BASE_CONFIGURE_OPTS += -no-eglfs
 endif
 
-QT5BASE_CONFIGURE_OPTS += $(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBOPENSSL),-openssl,-no-openssl)
-QT5BASE_DEPENDENCIES   += $(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBOPENSSL),openssl)
+# Qt5 officially only supports OpenSSL. Users can also provide their own
+# OpenSSL variant through the virtual package mechanism, but it is then up
+# to them to ensure that the provided API is exactly compatible with the
+# libopenssl one
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_OPENSSL):$(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBRESSL),y:)
+QT5BASE_CONFIGURE_OPTS += -openssl
+QT5BASE_DEPENDENCIES   += openssl
+else
+QT5BASE_CONFIGURE_OPTS += -no-openssl
+endif
 
 QT5BASE_CONFIGURE_OPTS += $(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_QT5BASE_FONTCONFIG),-fontconfig,-no-fontconfig)
 QT5BASE_DEPENDENCIES   += $(if $(BR2_PACKAGE_QT5BASE_FONTCONFIG),fontconfig)