diff --git a/ospfclient/Makefile.am b/ospfclient/Makefile.am
index 95a74ee..fb041af 100644
--- a/ospfclient/Makefile.am
+++ b/ospfclient/Makefile.am
@@ -16,6 +16,6 @@
 ospfclient_SOURCES = \
 	ospfclient.c $(libospfapiclient_a_SOURCES)
 
-ospfclient_LDADD = ../ospfd/libospf.a ../lib/libzebra.a
+ospfclient_LDADD = ../ospfd/libospf.a ../lib/libzebra.a @LIBCAP@
 
 
diff --git a/ospfclient/ospfclient.c b/ospfclient/ospfclient.c
index ec1aabc..2801087 100644
--- a/ospfclient/ospfclient.c
+++ b/ospfclient/ospfclient.c
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 
 #include <zebra.h>
 #include "prefix.h" /* needed by ospf_asbr.h */
+#include "privs.h"
+
 #include "ospfd/ospfd.h"
 #include "ospfd/ospf_asbr.h"
 #include "ospfd/ospf_lsa.h"
@@ -18,6 +20,18 @@
 #include "ospfd/ospf_api.h"
 #include "ospf_apiclient.h"
 
+/* privileges struct. 
+ * set cap_num_* and uid/gid to nothing to use NULL privs
+ * as ospfapiclient links in libospf.a which uses privs.
+ */
+struct zebra_privs_t ospfd_privs =
+{
+  .user = NULL,
+  .group = NULL,
+  .cap_num_p = 0,
+  .cap_num_i = 0
+};
+
 /* The following includes are specific to this application. For
    example it uses threads from libzebra, however your application is
    free to use any thread library (like pthreads). */
@@ -274,6 +288,7 @@
     }
 
   /* Initialization */
+  zprivs_init (&ospfd_privs);
   master = thread_master_create ();
 
   /* Open connection to OSPF daemon */