diff --git a/docs/guestfs-building.pod b/docs/guestfs-building.pod
index 1f872700e..803b89fd5 100644
--- a/docs/guestfs-building.pod
+++ b/docs/guestfs-building.pod
@@ -387,7 +387,7 @@ Optional.  For tab-completion of commands in bash.
 
 Optional.  Library for filesystem forensics analysis.
 
-=item yara
+=item yara E<ge> 4.0.0
 
 Optional.  Tool for categorizing files based on their content.
 
diff --git a/m4/guestfs-daemon.m4 b/m4/guestfs-daemon.m4
index 316a811d3..4dec4fa67 100644
--- a/m4/guestfs-daemon.m4
+++ b/m4/guestfs-daemon.m4
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ AC_CHECK_LIB([tsk],[tsk_version_print],[
 ],[AC_MSG_WARN([The Sleuth Kit library (libtsk) not found])])
 
 dnl yara library (optional)
-PKG_CHECK_MODULES([YARA], [yara],[
+PKG_CHECK_MODULES([YARA], [yara >= 4.0.0],[
     AC_SUBST([YARA_CFLAGS])
     AC_SUBST([YARA_LIBS])
     AC_DEFINE([HAVE_YARA],[1],[yara library found at compile time.])