diff --git a/components/esp_system/ld/esp32c3/sections.ld.in b/components/esp_system/ld/esp32c3/sections.ld.in
index 8e27b98018..a4e41e7123 100644
--- a/components/esp_system/ld/esp32c3/sections.ld.in
+++ b/components/esp_system/ld/esp32c3/sections.ld.in
@@ -368,7 +368,8 @@ SECTIONS
   /* Marks the end of IRAM code segment */
   .iram0.text_end (NOLOAD) :
   {
-    /* C3 memprot requires 512 B alignment for split lines */
+    /* C3 memprot requires 16B padding for possible CPU prefetch and 512B alignment for PMS split lines */
+    . += 16;
     . = ALIGN (0x200);
     /* iram_end_test section exists for use by memprot unit tests only */
     *(.iram_end_test)