diff --git a/security/py-cryptography/Makefile b/security/py-cryptography/Makefile
index 9d84ff3f993..9e93ace7b5b 100644
--- a/security/py-cryptography/Makefile
+++ b/security/py-cryptography/Makefile
@@ -13,15 +13,15 @@ COMMENT=	Cryptographic recipes and primitives for Python developers
 LICENSE=	APACHE20
 LICENSE_FILE=	${WRKSRC}/LICENSE
 
-BUILD_DEPENDS=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}cffi>=1.4.1:devel/py-cffi
-RUN_DEPENDS=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}six>=1.4.1:devel/py-six \
+BUILD_DEPENDS?=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}cffi>=1.4.1:devel/py-cffi
+RUN_DEPENDS?=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}six>=1.4.1:devel/py-six \
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}pyasn1>=0.1.8:devel/py-pyasn1 \
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}cffi>=1.1.0:devel/py-cffi \
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}idna>=2.0:dns/py-idna
 TEST_DEPENDS=	${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}pytest>0:devel/py-pytest \
 		${PYTHON_PKGNAMEPREFIX}iso8601>0:devel/py-iso8601
 
-USES=		python ssl
+USES?=		python ssl
 USE_PYTHON=	autoplist distutils
 
 CFLAGS+=	-I${OPENSSLINC}