diff --git a/package/elfutils/Config.in b/package/elfutils/Config.in
index e866dd448b..f6a7d6683d 100644
--- a/package/elfutils/Config.in
+++ b/package/elfutils/Config.in
@@ -33,4 +33,14 @@ comment "elfutils programs needs a glibc toolchain w/ C++"
 	depends on !BR2_TOOLCHAIN_USES_GLIBC \
 		|| !BR2_INSTALL_LIBSTDCPP
 
+config BR2_PACKAGE_ELFUTILS_LIBDEBUGINFOD
+	bool "Build libdebuginfod"
+	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_SYNC_4 # json-c
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_JSON_C
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_LIBCURL
+	help
+	  This option enables building libdebuginfod. Note that this
+	  only builds the library, it does not provide any service or
+	  data to download debug info.
+
 endif
diff --git a/package/elfutils/elfutils.mk b/package/elfutils/elfutils.mk
index 554a60003f..176dc79f79 100644
--- a/package/elfutils/elfutils.mk
+++ b/package/elfutils/elfutils.mk
@@ -49,8 +49,13 @@ ifeq ($(BR2_microblaze),y)
 ELFUTILS_CONF_OPTS += --disable-symbol-versioning
 endif
 
-# disable for now, needs "distro" support
-ELFUTILS_CONF_OPTS += --disable-libdebuginfod --disable-debuginfod
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_ELFUTILS_LIBDEBUGINFOD),y)
+ELFUTILS_CONF_OPTS += --enable-libdebuginfod
+ELFUTILS_DEPENDENCIES += json-c libcurl
+else
+ELFUTILS_CONF_OPTS += --disable-libdebuginfod
+endif
+ELFUTILS_CONF_OPTS += --disable-debuginfod
 HOST_ELFUTILS_CONF_OPTS += --disable-libdebuginfod --disable-debuginfod
 
 ELFUTILS_CONF_ENV += \