diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bfd14c5463da8c97675749b049869335b05885b6..4a6c155b23b8cc51b2fc202ec45323c748dc7c20 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -378,6 +378,7 @@ STRIP		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)strip
 OBJCOPY		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)objcopy
 OBJDUMP		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)objdump
 OBJSIZE		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)size
+READELF		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)readelf
 LEX		= flex
 YACC		= bison
 AWK		= awk
@@ -434,7 +435,7 @@ GCC_PLUGINS_CFLAGS :=
 CLANG_FLAGS :=
 
 export ARCH SRCARCH CONFIG_SHELL HOSTCC KBUILD_HOSTCFLAGS CROSS_COMPILE AS LD CC
-export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP OBJSIZE KBUILD_HOSTLDFLAGS KBUILD_HOSTLDLIBS
+export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP OBJSIZE READELF KBUILD_HOSTLDFLAGS KBUILD_HOSTLDLIBS
 export MAKE LEX YACC AWK GENKSYMS INSTALLKERNEL PERL PYTHON PYTHON2 PYTHON3 UTS_MACHINE
 export HOSTCXX KBUILD_HOSTCXXFLAGS LDFLAGS_MODULE CHECK CHECKFLAGS
 
diff --git a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile
index b337a0cd58ba420e117555eac9a8b4c1017c3e0f..5642f025b397cd7bd3f2ae5b40acc2dac0bb4d5d 100644
--- a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile
+++ b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ vmlinux-objs-$(CONFIG_EFI_MIXED) += $(obj)/efi_thunk_$(BITS).o
 quiet_cmd_check_data_rel = DATAREL $@
 define cmd_check_data_rel
 	for obj in $(filter %.o,$^); do \
-		${CROSS_COMPILE}readelf -S $$obj | grep -qF .rel.local && { \
+		$(READELF) -S $$obj | grep -qF .rel.local && { \
 			echo "error: $$obj has data relocations!" >&2; \
 			exit 1; \
 		} || true; \