diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 15e9d11b..707c0864 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ NEWS
   * [ssl] support disabling ssl.verifyclient.activate in SNI callback (fixes #2531)
   * restart (some) syscalls after SIGCHLD interrupted them; should fix LDAP problems (fixes #2464)
   * [core] log remote address on request timeouts (fixes #652)
+  * [autobuild] use AC_CANONICAL_HOST instead of AC_CANONICAL_TARGET (fixes #1866)
 
 - 1.4.39 - 2016-01-02
   * [core] fix memset_s call (fixes #2698)
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index e09b59be..b7a0a67a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/server.c])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADER([config.h])
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
 
-AC_CANONICAL_TARGET
+AC_CANONICAL_HOST
 
 dnl HOW FUCKING BROKEN IS AUTOMAKE...
 dnl serial-tests is not recognized before 1.12, and required for serial tests with 1.13, sane version checks "impossible"