diff --git a/arch/alpha/boot/tools/objstrip.c b/arch/alpha/boot/tools/objstrip.c
index 08b430d25a31..7cf92d172dce 100644
--- a/arch/alpha/boot/tools/objstrip.c
+++ b/arch/alpha/boot/tools/objstrip.c
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
 #ifdef __ELF__
     elf = (struct elfhdr *) buf;
 
-    if (elf->e_ident[0] == 0x7f && str_has_prefix((char *)elf->e_ident + 1, "ELF")) {
+    if (memcmp(&elf->e_ident[EI_MAG0], ELFMAG, SELFMAG) == 0) {
 	if (elf->e_type != ET_EXEC) {
 	    fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s is not an ELF executable\n",
 		    prog_name, inname);