diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/unifyfs/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/unifyfs/package.py
index cf4a8e0c4f30673aa068d4e4341cabda6fec0342..044f8782b38ae27c2823476b7737c3662bd34111 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/unifyfs/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/unifyfs/package.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ class Unifyfs(AutotoolsPackage):
     variant('pmi', default='False', description='Enable PMI2 build options')
     variant('pmix', default='False', description='Enable PMIx build options')
 
+    depends_on('openssl')
     depends_on('autoconf',  type='build')
     depends_on('automake',  type='build')
     depends_on('libtool',   type='build')