diff --git a/libvirt.spec.in b/libvirt.spec.in
index 533aaa12b9..5e4a3b7ac6 100644
--- a/libvirt.spec.in
+++ b/libvirt.spec.in
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@
 %define with_firewalld     0%{!?_without_firewalld:0}
 %define with_libssh2       0%{!?_without_libssh2:0}
 %define with_wireshark     0%{!?_without_wireshark:0}
+%define with_libssh        0%{!?_without_libssh:0}
 %define with_pm_utils      1
 
 # Finally set the OS / architecture specific special cases
@@ -172,6 +173,11 @@
     %define with_wireshark 0%{!?_without_wireshark:1}
 %endif
 
+# Enable libssh transport for new enough distros
+%if 0%{?fedora}
+    %define with_libssh 0%{!?_without_libssh:1}
+%endif
+
 
 %if %{with_qemu} || %{with_lxc} || %{with_uml}
 # numad is used to manage the CPU and memory placement dynamically,
@@ -418,6 +424,10 @@ BuildRequires: wireshark-devel >= 1.12.1
     %endif
 %endif
 
+%if %{with_libssh}
+BuildRequires: libssh-devel >= 0.7.0
+%endif
+
 Provides: bundled(gnulib)
 
 %description