diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 958edc6fe..762a51c14 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ Android.common.mk :	Android.common.mk.in configure.ac
 		-e "s:\@PACKAGE_VERSION\@:$(PACKAGE_VERSION):" \
 		$(srcdir)/$@.in > $@
 
+dist-hook:
+		@echo $(GIT_VERSION) > $(distdir)/.tarball-git-version
+
 Doxyfile :	Doxyfile.in
 		$(AM_V_GEN) \
 		sed \
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d71ddeb38..6ee47f584 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -326,6 +326,7 @@ ARG_ENABL_SET([tss-tss2],       [enable the use of the TSS 2.0 Trusted Software
 
 # compile options
 ARG_ENABL_SET([coverage],       [enable lcov coverage report generation.])
+ARG_ENABL_SET([git-version],    [use output of 'git describe' as version information in executables.])
 ARG_ENABL_SET([leak-detective], [enable malloc hooks to find memory leaks.])
 ARG_ENABL_SET([lock-profiler],  [enable lock/mutex profiling code.])
 ARG_ENABL_SET([log-thread-ids], [use thread ID, if available, instead of an incremented value starting from 1, to identify threads.])
@@ -1384,6 +1385,21 @@ if test "x$ss_cv_static_plugin_constructors" = xyes; then
 	fi
 fi
 
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([version from Git repository])
+AC_SUBST(GIT_VERSION, [$($srcdir/scripts/git-version "$srcdir")])
+case "$GIT_VERSION" in
+	"$PACKAGE_VERSION"*)
+		AC_MSG_RESULT([$GIT_VERSION])
+		;;
+	*)
+		AC_MSG_ERROR([$PACKAGE_VERSION is not a prefix of $GIT_VERSION, tag missing?])
+		;;
+esac
+
+if test x$git_version = xtrue; then
+	AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VERSION, ["$GIT_VERSION"])
+fi
+
 # ===============================================
 #  collect plugin list for strongSwan components
 # ===============================================
diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.am b/scripts/Makefile.am
index a793800b7..82d92ef79 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.am
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.am
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+EXTRA_DIST = git-version
+
 AM_CPPFLAGS = \
 	-I$(top_srcdir)/src/libstrongswan \
 	-I$(top_srcdir)/src/libtls \
diff --git a/scripts/git-version b/scripts/git-version
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..f92d0718f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/git-version
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+SRCDIR=$1
+TARBALL=$SRCDIR/.tarball-git-version
+
+if test -f $TARBALL; then
+	V=$(cat $TARBALL)
+elif test -d $SRCDIR/.git; then
+	V=$(git -C $SRCDIR describe --tags HEAD 2>/dev/null)
+fi
+
+if test -z "$V"; then
+	V="UNKNOWN"
+fi
+
+echo $V