diff --git a/include/device.h b/include/device.h
index 3c71f6a0c15..87599d6086d 100644
--- a/include/device.h
+++ b/include/device.h
@@ -699,6 +699,50 @@ static inline bool device_is_ready(const struct device *dev)
 	Z_DEVICE_STATE_DEFINE(node_id, dev_name)			\
 	Z_DEVICE_DEFINE_PM_SLOT(dev_name)
 
+/* Helper macros needed for CONFIG_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING. These should
+ * be deleted when that option is removed.
+ *
+ * This is implemented "by hand" -- rather than using a helper macro
+ * like UTIL_LISTIFY() -- because we need to allow users to wrap
+ * DEVICE_DT_DEFINE with UTIL_LISTIFY, like this:
+ *
+ *     #define DEFINE_FOO_DEVICE(...) DEVICE_DT_DEFINE(...)
+ *     UTIL_LISTIFY(N, DEFINE_FOO_DEVICE)
+ *
+ * If Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING uses UTIL_LISTIFY, this type of code
+ * would fail, because the UTIL_LISTIFY token within the
+ * Z_DEVICE_DEFINE_HANDLES expansion would not be expanded again,
+ * since it appears in a context where UTIL_LISTIFY is already being
+ * expanded. Standard C does not reexpand macros appearing in their
+ * own expansion; this would lead to infinite recursions in general.
+ */
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING \
+	Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_(CONFIG_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING)
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_(count) \
+	Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING__(count)
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING__(count) \
+	Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_ ## count
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_10 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_9
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_9 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_8
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_8 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_7
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_7 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_6
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_6 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_5
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_5 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_4
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_4 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_3
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_3 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_2
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_2 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_1
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_1 \
+	DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS, Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_0
+#define Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING_0 EMPTY
 
 /* Initial build provides a record that associates the device object
  * with its devicetree ordinal, and provides the dependency ordinals.
@@ -735,6 +779,7 @@ BUILD_ASSERT(sizeof(device_handle_t) == 2, "fix the linker scripts");
 		))							\
 			DEVICE_HANDLE_SEP,				\
 			Z_DEVICE_EXTRA_HANDLES(__VA_ARGS__)		\
+			Z_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING				\
 		};
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_PM_DEVICE
diff --git a/kernel/Kconfig b/kernel/Kconfig
index 9bf3d6d0105..d9480ec44c9 100644
--- a/kernel/Kconfig
+++ b/kernel/Kconfig
@@ -303,6 +303,22 @@ config WAITQ_DUMB
 
 endchoice # WAITQ_ALGORITHM
 
+config DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING
+	int "Number of additional device handles to use for padding"
+	default 0
+	range 0 10
+	help
+	  This is a "fudge factor" which works around build system
+	  limitations. It is safe to ignore unless you get a specific
+	  build system error about it.
+
+	  The option's value is the number of superfluous device handle
+	  values which are introduced into the array pointed to by each
+	  device's 'handles' member during the first linker pass.
+
+	  Each handle uses 2 bytes, so a value of 3 would use an extra
+	  6 bytes of ROM for every device.
+
 menu "Kernel Debugging and Metrics"
 
 config INIT_STACKS
diff --git a/scripts/gen_handles.py b/scripts/gen_handles.py
index 1d19619d7d1..558ce82c707 100755
--- a/scripts/gen_handles.py
+++ b/scripts/gen_handles.py
@@ -311,9 +311,15 @@ def main():
             # address. We can't allow the size of any object in the
             # final elf to change. We also must make sure at least one
             # DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS is inserted.
-            assert len(hdls) < len(hs.handles), "%s no DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS inserted" % (dev.sym.name,)
-            while len(hdls) < len(hs.handles):
+            padding = len(hs.handles) - len(hdls)
+            assert padding > 0, \
+                (f"device {dev.sym.name}: "
+                 "linker pass 1 left no room to insert DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS. "
+                 "To work around, increase CONFIG_DEVICE_HANDLE_PADDING by " +
+                 str(1 + (-padding)))
+            while padding > 0:
                 hdls.append(DEVICE_HANDLE_ENDS)
+                padding -= 1
             assert len(hdls) == len(hs.handles), "%s handle overflow" % (dev.sym.name,)
 
             lines = [