diff --git a/repos/base/include/util/string.h b/repos/base/include/util/string.h
index 6d2aee5f37..5e41b53d76 100644
--- a/repos/base/include/util/string.h
+++ b/repos/base/include/util/string.h
@@ -221,7 +221,12 @@ namespace Genode {
 	 * \param dst   destination buffer
 	 * \param i     byte value
 	 * \param size  buffer size in bytes
+	 *
+	 * The compiler attribute is needed to prevent the
+	 * generation of a 'memset()' call in the 'while' loop
+	 * with gcc 10.
 	 */
+	 __attribute((optimize("no-tree-loop-distribute-patterns")))
 	inline void *memset(void *dst, int i, size_t size)
 	{
 		while (size--) ((char *)dst)[size] = i;
diff --git a/repos/dde_rump/lib/mk/rump.inc b/repos/dde_rump/lib/mk/rump.inc
index fc55936f66..d2bdb9ad12 100644
--- a/repos/dde_rump/lib/mk/rump.inc
+++ b/repos/dde_rump/lib/mk/rump.inc
@@ -196,6 +196,9 @@ SRC_NOLINK += accessors.c \
               vnode_if.c \
               xlat_mbr_fstype.c
 
+# prevent the generation of a 'memset()' call in 'memset()'
+CC_OPT_memset = -fno-tree-loop-distribute-patterns
+
 INC_DIR += $(REP_DIR)/src/include \
            $(RUMP_BASE)/include \
            $(RUMP_PORT_DIR)/src/lib/libc/include \
diff --git a/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-string.mk b/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-string.mk
index e634d35060..74128c27bf 100644
--- a/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-string.mk
+++ b/repos/libports/lib/mk/libc-string.mk
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ LIBC_STRING_DIR = $(LIBC_DIR)/lib/libc/string
 
 SRC_C = $(filter-out $(FILTER_OUT),$(notdir $(wildcard $(LIBC_STRING_DIR)/*.c)))
 
+# prevent the generation of a 'memset()' call in 'memset()'
+CC_OPT_memset += -fno-tree-loop-distribute-patterns
+
 include $(REP_DIR)/lib/mk/libc-common.inc
 
 vpath %.c $(LIBC_STRING_DIR)