diff --git a/include/mbedtls/bn_mul.h b/include/mbedtls/bn_mul.h
index b587317d9593..74a2d29bed60 100644
--- a/include/mbedtls/bn_mul.h
+++ b/include/mbedtls/bn_mul.h
@@ -50,13 +50,29 @@
 #if defined(__GNUC__) && \
     ( !defined(__ARMCC_VERSION) || __ARMCC_VERSION >= 6000000 )
 
+/*
+ * GCC < 5.0 treated the x86 ebx (which is used for the GOT) as a
+ * fixed reserved register when building as PIC, leading to errors
+ * like: bn_mul.h:46:13: error: PIC register clobbered by ‘ebx’ in ‘asm’
+ *
+ * This is fixed by an improved register allocator in GCC 5+. From the
+ * release notes:
+ * Register allocation improvements: Reuse of the PIC hard register,
+ * instead of using a fixed register, was implemented on x86/x86-64
+ * targets. This improves generated PIC code performance as more hard
+ * registers can be used.
+ */
+#if defined(__GNUC__) && __GNUC__ < 5 && defined(__PIC__)
+#define MULADDC_CANNOT_USE_EBX
+#endif
+
 /*
  * Disable use of the i386 assembly code below if option -O0, to disable all
  * compiler optimisations, is passed, detected with __OPTIMIZE__
  * This is done as the number of registers used in the assembly code doesn't
  * work with the -O0 option.
  */
-#if defined(__i386__) && defined(__OPTIMIZE__)
+#if defined(__i386__) && defined(__OPTIMIZE__) && !defined(MULADDC_CANNOT_USE_EBX)
 
 #define MULADDC_INIT                        \
     asm(                                    \