diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-02-05-13-31-42.bpo-32647.ktmfR_.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-02-05-13-31-42.bpo-32647.ktmfR_.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..04fc0247bcd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2018-02-05-13-31-42.bpo-32647.ktmfR_.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+The ctypes module used to depend on indirect linking for dlopen. The shared
+extension is now explicitly linked against libdl on platforms with dl.
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f4f6e4fdb1f..8536c350fe3 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2005,6 +2005,10 @@ class PyBuildExt(build_ext):
             ext.libraries.append(ffi_lib)
             self.use_system_libffi = True
 
+        if sysconfig.get_config_var('HAVE_LIBDL'):
+            # for dlopen, see bpo-32647
+            ext.libraries.append('dl')
+
     def _decimal_ext(self):
         extra_compile_args = []
         undef_macros = []