diff --git a/package/strongswan/Config.in b/package/strongswan/Config.in
index 047b460be8..10efcc1616 100644
--- a/package/strongswan/Config.in
+++ b/package/strongswan/Config.in
@@ -63,6 +63,16 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_WOLFSSL
 
 endchoice
 
+config BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_PIDDIR
+	string "piddir"
+	default "/var/run"
+	help
+	  Path for PID and UNIX socket files used by strongswan.
+
+	  Use the empty string to not pass --with-piddir to strongswan
+	  configure, this then defaults to strongswan's source default
+	  which may not be stable across releases.
+
 config BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_AF_ALG
 	bool "Enable AF_ALG crypto interface to Linux Crypto API"
 
diff --git a/package/strongswan/strongswan.mk b/package/strongswan/strongswan.mk
index 0ee26df43d..9719242327 100644
--- a/package/strongswan/strongswan.mk
+++ b/package/strongswan/strongswan.mk
@@ -66,6 +66,9 @@ ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_DROP_CAPS),y)
 STRONGSWAN_CONF_OPTS += --with-capabilities=libcap
 endif
 
+# setup piddir if BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_PIDDIR is not empty
+STRONGSWAN_CONF_OPTS += $(if $(call qstrip,$(BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_PIDDIR)),--with-piddir=$(BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_PIDDIR))
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_STRONGSWAN_NONROOT),y)
 STRONGSWAN_CONF_OPTS += \
 	--with-user=charon \