diff --git a/tlv/stream.go b/tlv/stream.go
index 49bb70edc..159301fd8 100644
--- a/tlv/stream.go
+++ b/tlv/stream.go
@@ -8,10 +8,20 @@ import (
 	"math"
 )
 
+// MaxRecordSize is the maximum size of a particular record that will be parsed
+// by a stream decoder. This value is currently chosen to the be equal to the
+// maximum message size permitted by BOLT 1, as no record should be bigger than
+// an entire message.
+const MaxRecordSize = 65535 // 65KB
+
 // ErrStreamNotCanonical signals that a decoded stream does not contain records
 // sorting by monotonically-increasing type.
 var ErrStreamNotCanonical = errors.New("tlv stream is not canonical")
 
+// ErrRecordTooLarge signals that a decoded record has a length that is too
+// long to parse.
+var ErrRecordTooLarge = errors.New("record is too large")
+
 // ErrUnknownRequiredType is an error returned when decoding an unknown and even
 // type from a Stream.
 type ErrUnknownRequiredType Type
@@ -183,6 +193,14 @@ func (s *Stream) Decode(r io.Reader) error {
 			return err
 		}
 
+		// Place a soft limit on the size of a sane record, which
+		// prevents malicious encoders from causing us to allocate an
+		// unbounded amount of memory when decoding variable-sized
+		// fields.
+		if length > MaxRecordSize {
+			return ErrRecordTooLarge
+		}
+
 		// Search the records known to the stream for this type. We'll
 		// begin the search and recordIdx and walk forward until we find
 		// it or the next record's type is larger.
diff --git a/tlv/tlv_test.go b/tlv/tlv_test.go
index c3b996fef..13ef24685 100644
--- a/tlv/tlv_test.go
+++ b/tlv/tlv_test.go
@@ -49,6 +49,8 @@ type N1 struct {
 	nodeAmts  nodeAmts
 	cltvDelta uint16
 
+	alias []byte
+
 	stream *tlv.Stream
 }
 
@@ -66,6 +68,7 @@ func NewN1() *N1 {
 		tlv.MakePrimitiveRecord(2, &n.scid),
 		tlv.MakeStaticRecord(3, &n.nodeAmts, 49, ENodeAmts, DNodeAmts),
 		tlv.MakePrimitiveRecord(254, &n.cltvDelta),
+		tlv.MakePrimitiveRecord(401, &n.alias),
 	)
 
 	return n
@@ -396,6 +399,12 @@ var tlvDecodingFailureTests = []struct {
 		bytes:  []byte{0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0x00, 0x00},
 		expErr: tlv.ErrStreamNotCanonical,
 	},
+	{
+		name:   "absurd record length",
+		bytes:  []byte{0xfd, 0x01, 0x91, 0xfe, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff},
+		expErr: tlv.ErrRecordTooLarge,
+		skipN2: true,
+	},
 }
 
 // TestTLVDecodingSuccess asserts that the TLV parser fails to decode invalid