diff --git a/BuildOptions.cmake b/BuildOptions.cmake
index 8ae6129c58..2edc7f64c2 100644
--- a/BuildOptions.cmake
+++ b/BuildOptions.cmake
@@ -53,9 +53,18 @@ set(ENABLE_PERFTOOLS false
 # Uncomment to specify a custom prefix that contains the libpcap installation.
 #set(PCAP_ROOT_DIR path/to/your/pcap)
 
+# Uncomment to specify a custom prefix containing the BinPAC installation.
+#set(BinPAC_ROOT_DIR path/to/your/binpac)
+
+# Uncomment to prefer building BinPAC from existing sources rather than
+# use an existing installation (i.e. you have initialized Bro's BinPAC
+# git submodule and updated sources local to the Bro source tree)
+#set(BinPAC_PREFER_LOCAL_BUILD true)
+
+# Comment this if local build of BinPAC should be scheduled for installation
+set(BinPAC_SKIP_INSTALL true)
+
 # TODO: more dependencies:
-# BinPAC
-#
 # Libmagic
 # LibGeoIP
 # Libz
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 1f6b27cb64..5dd1a01ae1 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -72,6 +72,25 @@ include_directories(BEFORE
                     ${OPENSSL_INCLUDE_DIR}
                     ${BIND_INCLUDE_DIR})
 
+# This test is for when the user would like to use rebuild BinPAC
+# rather than use an existing installation
+if (NOT BinPAC_PREFER_LOCAL_BUILD)
+    find_package(BinPAC)
+endif ()
+
+if (NOT BINPAC_FOUND)
+    # check if we can build BinPAC locally
+    if (EXISTS ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/binpac/CMakeLists.txt)
+        add_subdirectory(binpac)
+        # find_package called just to set the _FOUND variable
+        find_package(BinPAC)
+        message(STATUS "Building local version of BinPAC")
+    else ()
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "BinPAC required but it is not installed and"
+                            " the sources to build it are also not found.")
+    endif ()
+endif ()
+
 # TODO: optional libmagic
 # TODO: optional libGeoIP
 # TODO: optional libz
@@ -106,7 +125,6 @@ include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
 ## Recurse on sub-directories
 ##
 
-add_subdirectory(binpac)
 add_subdirectory(src)
 #add_subdirectory(aux)
 #add_subdirectory(scripts)
@@ -134,7 +152,7 @@ message(
     "\nlibz:              ${use_libz}"
     "\nlibmagic:          ${use_libmagic}"
     "\nEndace:            ${use_endace}"
-    "\nGoogle perftools:  ${summary_perftools}"
+    "\nGoogle perftools:  ${use_perftools}"
     "\n"
     "\n================================================================\n"
 )
diff --git a/cmake/FindBinPAC.cmake b/cmake/FindBinPAC.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b64211aade
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmake/FindBinPAC.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# - Try to find BinPAC binary and library
+#
+# Usage of this module as follows:
+#
+#     find_package(BinPAC)
+#
+# Variables used by this module, they can change the default behaviour and need
+# to be set before calling find_package:
+#
+#  BinPAC_ROOT_DIR           Set this variable to the root installation of
+#                            BinPAC if the module has problems finding the
+#                            proper installation path.
+#
+# Variables defined by this module:
+#
+#  BINPAC_FOUND              System has BinPAC binary and library
+#  BinPAC_EXE                The binpac executable
+#  BinPAC_LIBRARY            The libbinpac.a library
+#  BinPAC_INCLUDE_DIR        The binpac headers
+
+find_path(BinPAC_ROOT_DIR
+    NAMES include/binpac.h
+)
+
+find_file(BinPAC_EXE
+    NAMES binpac
+    HINTS ${BinPAC_ROOT_DIR}/bin
+)
+
+find_library(BinPAC_LIBRARY
+    NAMES libbinpac.a
+    HINTS ${BinPAC_ROOT_DIR}/lib
+)
+
+find_path(BinPAC_INCLUDE_DIR
+    NAMES binpac.h
+    HINTS ${BinPAC_ROOT_DIR}/include
+)
+
+include(FindPackageHandleStandardArgs)
+find_package_handle_standard_args(BinPAC DEFAULT_MSG
+    BinPAC_EXE
+    BinPAC_LIBRARY
+    BinPAC_INCLUDE_DIR
+)
+
+mark_as_advanced(
+    BinPAC_ROOT_DIR
+    BinPAC_EXE
+    BinPAC_LIBRARY
+    BinPAC_INCLUDE_DIR
+)
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 01846daa93..c1d4892932 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 include_directories(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
                     ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
-                    ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/binpac/lib
-                    ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/binpac/lib
+                    ${BinPAC_INCLUDE_DIR}
                     )
 
 macro(REPLACE_YY_PREFIX_TARGET inFile outFile yylexPrefix yyPrefix)
@@ -62,9 +61,9 @@ replace_yy_prefix_target(${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/p.cc
 flex_target(Scanner scan.l ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/scan.cc
             COMPILE_FLAGS "-Pbro")
 
-configure_file (version.c.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/version.c)
+configure_file(version.c.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/version.c)
 
-########### next target ###############
+########### bifcl target###############
 
 set(bifcl_SRCS
    ${BISON_BIFParser_OUTPUTS}
@@ -116,9 +115,9 @@ set(BIF_SRCS
     smb-rw.bif
     )
 
-foreach(bift ${BIF_SRCS})
+foreach (bift ${BIF_SRCS})
     bif_target(${bift})
-endforeach(bift)
+endforeach ()
 
 
 ########## targets that need binpac ##########
@@ -127,11 +126,11 @@ macro(BINPAC_TARGET pacFile)
     get_filename_component(basename ${pacFile} NAME_WE)
     add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${basename}_pac.h
                               ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${basename}_pac.cc
-                       COMMAND binpac
+                       COMMAND ${BinPAC_EXE}
                        ARGS -d ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
                             -I ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
                             ${pacFile}
-                       DEPENDS binpac ${pacFile}
+                       DEPENDS ${BinPAC_EXE} ${pacFile}
                        COMMENT "[BINPAC] Processing ${pacFile}"
     )
     list(APPEND ALL_BINPAC_OUTPUTS
@@ -178,11 +177,11 @@ set(BINPAC_RPC_AUXSRC
     ssl-protocol.pac ssl-record-layer.pac
 )
 
-foreach(binpact ${BINPAC_SRCS})
+foreach (binpact ${BINPAC_SRCS})
     binpac_target(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/${binpact})
-endforeach(binpact)
+endforeach ()
 
-########### next target ###############
+########### bro target ###############
 
 set(dns_SRCS nb_dns.c nb_dns.h)
 
@@ -366,7 +365,7 @@ add_executable(bro ${bro_SRCS})
 
 target_link_libraries(bro
                       m
-                      binpac_lib
+                      ${BinPAC_LIBRARY}
                       ${PCAP_LIBRARY}
                       ${OPENSSL_LIBRARIES}
                       ${BIND_LIBRARY}