diff --git a/components/esp32c3/ld/esp32c3.project.ld.in b/components/esp32c3/ld/esp32c3.project.ld.in
index 5c3d3aca51..21d5845b36 100644
--- a/components/esp32c3/ld/esp32c3.project.ld.in
+++ b/components/esp32c3/ld/esp32c3.project.ld.in
@@ -392,7 +392,8 @@ 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)