diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 9140026a..e157aadf 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -497,6 +497,60 @@ if pkg-config --exists "gmime-3.0 > $GMIME_MINVER"; then
     have_gmime=1
     gmime_cflags=$(pkg-config --cflags gmime-3.0)
     gmime_ldflags=$(pkg-config --libs gmime-3.0)
+
+    printf "Checking for GMime session key extraction support... "
+
+    cat > _check_session_keys.c <<EOF
+#include <gmime/gmime.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+int main () {
+    GError *error = NULL;
+    GMimeParser *parser = NULL;
+    GMimeMultipartEncrypted *body = NULL;
+    GMimeDecryptResult *decrypt_result = NULL;
+    GMimeObject *output = NULL;
+
+    g_mime_init ();
+    parser = g_mime_parser_new ();
+    g_mime_parser_init_with_stream (parser, g_mime_stream_file_open("test/corpora/crypto/basic-encrypted.eml", "r", &error));
+    if (error) return !! fprintf (stderr, "failed to instantiate parser with test/corpora/crypto/basic-encrypted.eml\n");
+
+    body = GMIME_MULTIPART_ENCRYPTED(g_mime_message_get_mime_part (g_mime_parser_construct_message (parser, NULL)));
+    if (body == NULL) return !!	fprintf (stderr, "did not find a multipart encrypted message\n");
+
+    output = g_mime_multipart_encrypted_decrypt (body, GMIME_DECRYPT_EXPORT_SESSION_KEY, NULL, &decrypt_result, &error);
+    if (error || output == NULL) return !! fprintf (stderr, "decryption failed\n");
+
+    if (decrypt_result == NULL) return !! fprintf (stderr, "no GMimeDecryptResult found\n");
+    if (decrypt_result->session_key == NULL) return !! fprintf (stderr, "GMimeDecryptResult has no session key\n");
+
+    printf ("%s\n", decrypt_result->session_key);
+    return 0;
+}
+EOF
+    if ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${gmime_cflags} ${gmime_ldflags}  _check_session_keys.c -o _check_session_keys > /dev/null 2>&1 \
+           && TEMP_GPG=$(mktemp -d) \
+           && GNUPGHOME=${TEMP_GPG} gpg --batch --quiet --import < test/gnupg-secret-key.asc \
+           && SESSION_KEY=$(GNUPGHOME=${TEMP_GPG} ./_check_session_keys) \
+           && [ $SESSION_KEY = 9:0BACD64099D1468AB07C796F0C0AC4851948A658A15B34E803865E9FC635F2F5 ]
+    then
+        printf "OK.\n"
+    else
+        cat <<EOF
+
+*** Error: Could not extract session keys from encrypted message.
+
+This is likely due to your GMime having been built against a old
+version of GPGME.
+
+Please try to rebuild your version of GMime against a more recent
+version of GPGME (at least GPGME 1.8.0).  Your current GPGME version
+is: $(gpgme-config --version)
+EOF
+        rm -rf _check_session_keys.c _check_session_keys "$TEMP_GPG"
+        errors=$((errors + 1))
+    fi
 else
     have_gmime=0
     printf "No.\n"