diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d514ce7effec..3bd026d22fdd 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -392,6 +392,7 @@ NM		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)nm
 STRIP		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)strip
 OBJCOPY		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)objcopy
 OBJDUMP		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)objdump
+READELF		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)readelf
 AWK		= awk
 GENKSYMS	= scripts/genksyms/genksyms
 INSTALLKERNEL  := installkernel
@@ -453,7 +454,7 @@ CLANG_FLAGS :=
 TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT := user
 
 export ARCH SRCARCH CONFIG_SHELL HOSTCC HOSTCFLAGS CROSS_COMPILE AS LD CC
-export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP HOSTLDFLAGS HOST_LOADLIBES
+export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP READELF HOSTLDFLAGS HOST_LOADLIBES
 export MAKE AWK GENKSYMS INSTALLKERNEL PERL PYTHON UTS_MACHINE
 export HOSTCXX HOSTCXXFLAGS LDFLAGS_MODULE CHECK CHECKFLAGS
 
diff --git a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile
index 69eb6d92c411..933165c17fc8 100644
--- a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile
+++ b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ 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; \