diff --git a/include/libc-symbols.h b/include/libc-symbols.h
index 154a73b5e5..f06ce3053a 100644
--- a/include/libc-symbols.h
+++ b/include/libc-symbols.h
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ for linking")
 
 /* Resource freeing functions from libc.so go in this section.  */
 #define __libc_freeres_fn_section \
-  __attribute__ ((section ("__libc_freeres_fn")))
+  __attribute__ ((__used__, section ("__libc_freeres_fn")))
 
 /* Resource freeing functions for libc.so.  */
 #define libc_freeres_fn(name) \