diff --git a/compiler/src/test/java/org/capnproto/test/EncodingTest.java b/compiler/src/test/java/org/capnproto/test/EncodingTest.java
index 1f10853..f52afd4 100644
--- a/compiler/src/test/java/org/capnproto/test/EncodingTest.java
+++ b/compiler/src/test/java/org/capnproto/test/EncodingTest.java
@@ -614,6 +614,24 @@ public class EncodingTest {
         root.getAnyPointerField().getAs(StructList.newFactory(Test.TestAllTypes.factory));
     }
 
+    // Test that we throw an exception on out-of-bounds list pointers.
+    // Before v0.1.11, we were vulnerable to a cpu amplification attack:
+    // reading an out-of-bounds pointer to list a huge number of elements of size BIT,
+    // when read as a struct list, would return without error.
+    @org.junit.Test(expected=DecodeException.class)
+    public void testListPointerOutOfBounds() throws DecodeException {
+        byte[] bytes = new byte[]
+                    {0,0,0,0, 0,0,1,0, // struct, one pointer
+                     1, 0x2f, 0, 0, 1, 0, -127, -128}; // list, points out of bounds.
+        ByteBuffer segment = ByteBuffer.wrap(bytes);
+        segment.order(ByteOrder.LITTLE_ENDIAN);
+        MessageReader message = new MessageReader(new ByteBuffer[]{segment},
+                                                  ReaderOptions.DEFAULT_READER_OPTIONS);
+
+        Test.TestAnyPointer.Reader root = message.getRoot(Test.TestAnyPointer.factory);
+        root.getAnyPointerField().getAs(StructList.newFactory(Test.TestAllTypes.factory));
+    }
+
     @org.junit.Test
     public void testLongUint8List() {
       MessageBuilder message = new MessageBuilder();
diff --git a/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/SegmentReader.java b/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/SegmentReader.java
index 82f8330..b407d21 100644
--- a/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/SegmentReader.java
+++ b/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/SegmentReader.java
@@ -38,4 +38,12 @@ public class SegmentReader {
     public final long get(int index) {
         return buffer.getLong(index * Constants.BYTES_PER_WORD);
     }
+
+    // Verify that the `size`-long (in words) range starting at word index
+    // `start` is within bounds.
+    public final boolean in_bounds(int start, int size) {
+        if (start < 0 || size < 0) return false;
+        long sizeInWords = size * Constants.BYTES_PER_WORD;
+        return (long) start + sizeInWords < (long) this.buffer.capacity();
+    }
 }
diff --git a/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/WireHelpers.java b/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/WireHelpers.java
index 2c9da87..64e6fff 100644
--- a/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/WireHelpers.java
+++ b/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/WireHelpers.java
@@ -38,6 +38,14 @@ final class WireHelpers {
         return (int)((bits + 63) / ((long) Constants.BITS_PER_WORD));
     }
 
+    // ByteBuffer already does bounds checking, but we still want
+    // to check bounds in some places to avoid cpu amplification attacks.
+    static boolean bounds_check(SegmentReader segment,
+                                int start,
+                                int size) {
+        return segment == null || segment.in_bounds(start, size);
+    }
+
     static class AllocateResult {
         public final int ptr;
         public final int refOffset;
@@ -1166,6 +1174,9 @@ final class WireHelpers {
             int ptr = resolved.ptr + 1;
 
             resolved.segment.arena.checkReadLimit(wordCount + 1);
+            if (!bounds_check(resolved.segment, resolved.ptr, wordCount + 1)) {
+                throw new DecodeException("Message contains out-of-bounds list pointer");
+            }
 
             int size = WirePointer.inlineCompositeListElementCount(tag);
 
@@ -1201,8 +1212,12 @@ final class WireHelpers {
             int elementCount = ListPointer.elementCount(resolved.ref);
             int step = dataSize + pointerCount * Constants.BITS_PER_POINTER;
 
-            resolved.segment.arena.checkReadLimit(
-                roundBitsUpToWords(elementCount * step));
+            int wordCount = roundBitsUpToWords((long)elementCount * step);
+            resolved.segment.arena.checkReadLimit(wordCount);
+
+            if (!bounds_check(resolved.segment, resolved.ptr, wordCount)) {
+                throw new DecodeException("Message contains out-of-bounds list pointer");
+            }
 
             if (elementSize == ElementSize.VOID) {
                 // Watch out for lists of void, which can claim to be arbitrarily large without