diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 73e3c2802927..01072d06b7cd 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -414,6 +414,7 @@ STRIP		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)strip
 OBJCOPY		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)objcopy
 OBJDUMP		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)objdump
 OBJSIZE		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)size
+READELF		= $(CROSS_COMPILE)readelf
 PAHOLE		= pahole
 LEX		= flex
 YACC		= bison
@@ -472,7 +473,7 @@ GCC_PLUGINS_CFLAGS :=
 CLANG_FLAGS :=
 
 export ARCH SRCARCH CONFIG_SHELL BASH HOSTCC KBUILD_HOSTCFLAGS CROSS_COMPILE AS LD CC
-export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP OBJSIZE PAHOLE LEX YACC AWK INSTALLKERNEL
+export CPP AR NM STRIP OBJCOPY OBJDUMP OBJSIZE READELF PAHOLE LEX YACC AWK INSTALLKERNEL
 export PERL PYTHON PYTHON2 PYTHON3 CHECK CHECKFLAGS MAKE UTS_MACHINE HOSTCXX
 export KBUILD_HOSTCXXFLAGS KBUILD_HOSTLDFLAGS KBUILD_HOSTLDLIBS LDFLAGS_MODULE
 
diff --git a/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile b/arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile
index aa976adb7094..1dac210f7d44 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; \