diff --git a/package/c-icap/c-icap.mk b/package/c-icap/c-icap.mk
index cff642cd9c..3078721bce 100644
--- a/package/c-icap/c-icap.mk
+++ b/package/c-icap/c-icap.mk
@@ -20,6 +20,13 @@ C_ICAP_CONF_OPTS = \
 # Pre-seed cache variables for tests done with AC_TRY_RUN that are not
 # cross-compile friendly
 C_ICAP_CONF_ENV = ac_cv_10031b_ipc_sem=yes ac_cv_fcntl=yes
+# c-icap adds '-Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/lib' to the link command line. This
+# causes the linker to search for libraries that are listed as NEEDED
+# in the libicapapi.so ELF header in host libraries, which breaks the
+# build. The affected library is libz. Forcing AUTORECONF adds -lz to
+# the link command line, and that makes the linker look first in
+# sysroot, thus avoiding the build breakage.
+C_ICAP_AUTORECONF = YES
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_BERKELEYDB),y)
 C_ICAP_CONF_OPTS += --with-berkeleydb