diff --git a/esphome/core/hash_base.h b/esphome/core/hash_base.h
index e549c3a515..f48093b63e 100644
--- a/esphome/core/hash_base.h
+++ b/esphome/core/hash_base.h
@@ -44,9 +44,10 @@ class HashBase {
   virtual size_t get_size() const = 0;
 
  protected:
-// ESP32-S2/S3 hardware SHA uses DMA that requires 32-byte aligned buffers.
-// Other platforms either don't have hardware SHA or don't require alignment.
-#if defined(USE_ESP32_VARIANT_ESP32S2) || defined(USE_ESP32_VARIANT_ESP32S3)
+// ESP32 variants with DMA-based hardware SHA (all except original ESP32) require 32-byte aligned buffers.
+// Original ESP32 uses a different hardware SHA implementation without DMA alignment requirements.
+// Other platforms (ESP8266, RP2040, LibreTiny) use software SHA and don't need alignment.
+#if defined(USE_ESP32) && !defined(USE_ESP32_VARIANT_ESP32)
   alignas(32)
 #endif
       uint8_t digest_[32];  // Storage sized for max(MD5=16, SHA256=32) bytes