diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
index 6e9e5e8d175ce6c75558622c4277b778f5840e85..09b871cacbe0efa0b11d9b0569590dc09bcafc00 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ This release includes the following changes:
 
 This release includes the following bugfixes:
 
+ o fix a build failure on Debian when NSS support is enabled [1]
  o 
 
 This release includes the following known bugs:
@@ -27,4 +28,4 @@ advice from friends like these:
 
 References to bug reports and discussions on issues:
 
- [1] = 
+ [1] = http://curl.haxx.se/mail/lib-2014-07/0209.html
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index c3cccfba07871634a78236705d4c986dc1e81d44..b78f56d0e2b742bbd43c085760ef0ff00c7ad0b9 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2078,6 +2078,10 @@ if test "$curl_ssl_msg" = "$init_ssl_msg"; then
       if test "x$USE_NSS" = "xyes"; then
         AC_MSG_NOTICE([detected NSS version $version])
 
+        dnl needed when linking the curl tool without USE_EXPLICIT_LIB_DEPS
+        NSS_LIBS=$addlib
+        AC_SUBST([NSS_LIBS])
+
         dnl when shared libs were found in a path that the run-time
         dnl linker doesn't search through, we need to add it to
         dnl LD_LIBRARY_PATH to prevent further configure tests to fail
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index d8c0c7da372f75c9b38a0ddc72280f4c3ffc9366..f96618e5e2dc709b0df854fc63c1c2a0d8398152 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ LIBS = $(BLANK_AT_MAKETIME)
 if USE_EXPLICIT_LIB_DEPS
 curl_LDADD = $(top_builddir)/lib/libcurl.la @LIBMETALINK_LIBS@ @LIBCURL_LIBS@
 else
-curl_LDADD = $(top_builddir)/lib/libcurl.la @LIBMETALINK_LIBS@ @ZLIB_LIBS@ @CURL_NETWORK_AND_TIME_LIBS@
+curl_LDADD = $(top_builddir)/lib/libcurl.la @LIBMETALINK_LIBS@ @NSS_LIBS@ @ZLIB_LIBS@ @CURL_NETWORK_AND_TIME_LIBS@
 endif
 
 curl_LDFLAGS = @LIBMETALINK_LDFLAGS@