diff --git a/src/basic/static-destruct.h b/src/basic/static-destruct.h
index fdc4c7c41ec..8e71c9b235a 100644
--- a/src/basic/static-destruct.h
+++ b/src/basic/static-destruct.h
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@ typedef struct SimpleCleanup {
         free_func_t destroy;
 } SimpleCleanup;
 
-typedef struct StaticDestructor {
+/* Note: see the comment on struct Option in options.h for why _alignptr_ is required here. */
+typedef struct _alignptr_ StaticDestructor {
         StaticDestructorType type;
         union {
                 SimpleCleanup simple;
diff --git a/src/shared/options.h b/src/shared/options.h
index fd3ab008d36..f02eb30027f 100644
--- a/src/shared/options.h
+++ b/src/shared/options.h
@@ -29,7 +29,12 @@ typedef enum OptionFlags {
         OPTION_HELP_ENTRY_VERBATIM = 1U << 6,  /* Same, but use the long_code in the first column as written */
 } OptionFlags;
 
-typedef struct Option {
+/* Note: the alignment attribute must match the one applied to each variable via _alignptr_ in
+ * _OPTION() below. Otherwise the struct's sizeof and the actual stride between consecutive entries
+ * placed in the SYSTEMD_OPTIONS section would not match on architectures where the natural
+ * alignment of the struct is smaller than sizeof(void*) (e.g. m68k). That would cause the
+ * pointer-arithmetic-based iteration over the section to read from padding bytes. */
+typedef struct _alignptr_ Option {
         int id;
         OptionFlags flags;
         char short_code;
@@ -38,6 +43,7 @@ typedef struct Option {
         uintptr_t data;
         const char *help;
 } Option;
+assert_cc(sizeof(Option) % sizeof(void*) == 0);
 
 #define _OPTION(counter, fl, sc, lc, mv, d, h)                          \
         _section_("SYSTEMD_OPTIONS")                                    \
diff --git a/src/shared/tests.h b/src/shared/tests.h
index 9a2b7c04128..3f8fdf7fa76 100644
--- a/src/shared/tests.h
+++ b/src/shared/tests.h
@@ -89,7 +89,8 @@ int define_hex_ptr_internal(const char *hex, void **name, size_t *name_len);
 /* Provide a convenient way to check if we're running in CI. */
 const char* ci_environment(void);
 
-typedef struct TestFunc {
+/* Note: see the comment on struct Option in options.h for why _alignptr_ is required here. */
+typedef struct _alignptr_ TestFunc {
         union f {
                 void (*void_func)(void);
                 int (*int_func)(void);
@@ -98,6 +99,7 @@ typedef struct TestFunc {
         bool has_ret:1;
         bool sd_booted:1;
 } TestFunc;
+assert_cc(sizeof(TestFunc) % sizeof(void*) == 0);
 
 /* See static-destruct.h for an explanation of how this works. */
 #define REGISTER_TEST(func, ...)                                                                        \
diff --git a/src/shared/verbs.h b/src/shared/verbs.h
index 2a9df84e0c3..253181e8c47 100644
--- a/src/shared/verbs.h
+++ b/src/shared/verbs.h
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ typedef enum VerbFlags {
         VERB_GROUP_MARKER = 1 << 2,  /* Fake verb entry to separate groups */
 } VerbFlags;
 
-typedef struct {
+/* Note: see the comment on struct Option in options.h for why _alignptr_ is required here. */
+typedef struct _alignptr_ {
         const char *verb;
         unsigned min_args, max_args;
         VerbFlags flags;
@@ -20,6 +21,7 @@ typedef struct {
         const char *argspec;
         const char *help;
 } Verb;
+assert_cc(sizeof(Verb) % sizeof(void*) == 0);
 
 #define _VERB_DATA(d, v, a, amin, amax, f, dat, h)                      \
         _section_("SYSTEMD_VERBS")                                      \