diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc b/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc
index f5d7c3f9c8..d5ab9eff6d 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox.inc
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ HOMEPAGE = "https://www.busybox.net"
 BUGTRACKER = "https://bugs.busybox.net/"
 
 DEPENDS += "kern-tools-native virtual/crypt"
+DEPENDS += "${@ bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES','pam','libpam','',d)}"
 
 # bzip2 applet in busybox is based on lightly-modified bzip2-1.0.4 source
 # the GPL is version 2 only