diff --git a/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/Serialize.java b/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/Serialize.java
index 5e7a7f4..c8720be 100644
--- a/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/Serialize.java
+++ b/runtime/src/main/java/org/capnproto/Serialize.java
@@ -82,6 +82,10 @@ public final class Serialize {
             segment0Size = firstWord.getInt(4);
         }
 
+        if (segment0Size < 0) {
+            throw new DecodeException("segment 0 has more than 2^31 words, which is unsupported");
+        }
+
         long totalWords = segment0Size;
 
         // in words
@@ -92,6 +96,11 @@ public final class Serialize {
             fillBuffer(moreSizesRaw, bc);
             for (int ii = 0; ii < segmentCount - 1; ++ii) {
                 int size = moreSizesRaw.getInt(ii * 4);
+                if (size < 0) {
+                    throw new DecodeException("segment " + (ii + 1) +
+                                              " has more than 2^31 words, which is unsupported");
+                }
+
                 moreSizes.add(size);
                 totalWords += size;
             }
diff --git a/runtime/src/test/java/org/capnproto/SerializeTest.java b/runtime/src/test/java/org/capnproto/SerializeTest.java
index b83cb85..3fdcc0a 100644
--- a/runtime/src/test/java/org/capnproto/SerializeTest.java
+++ b/runtime/src/test/java/org/capnproto/SerializeTest.java
@@ -129,4 +129,22 @@ public class SerializeTest {
         3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
       });
   }
+
+  @Test(expected=DecodeException.class)
+  public void testSegment0SizeOverflow() throws java.io.IOException {
+        byte[] input = {0, 0, 0, 0, -1, -1, -1, -113};
+        java.nio.channels.ReadableByteChannel channel =
+            java.nio.channels.Channels.newChannel(new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(input));
+        MessageReader message = Serialize.read(channel);
+  }
+
+  @Test(expected=DecodeException.class)
+  public void testSegment1SizeOverflow() throws java.io.IOException {
+      byte[] input = {
+          1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0,
+          -1, -1, -1, -113, 0, 0, 0, 0};
+        java.nio.channels.ReadableByteChannel channel =
+            java.nio.channels.Channels.newChannel(new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(input));
+        MessageReader message = Serialize.read(channel);
+  }
 }