diff --git a/package/libupnpp/libupnpp.mk b/package/libupnpp/libupnpp.mk
index ad790f85ac..853a7244ea 100644
--- a/package/libupnpp/libupnpp.mk
+++ b/package/libupnpp/libupnpp.mk
@@ -11,4 +11,10 @@ LIBUPNPP_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
 LIBUPNPP_INSTALL_STAGING = YES
 LIBUPNPP_DEPENDENCIES = expat libcurl libupnp
 
+# configure script fails to link against the dependencies of libupnp
+# causing upnp detection to fail when statically linking
+ifeq ($(BR2_STATIC_LIBS),y)
+LIBUPNPP_CONF_ENV += LIBS='-lthreadutil -lixml -pthread'
+endif
+
 $(eval $(autotools-package))