diff --git a/man/tiff2rgba.1 b/man/tiff2rgba.1
index d9c9baae..fe9ebb2c 100644
--- a/man/tiff2rgba.1
+++ b/man/tiff2rgba.1
@@ -87,6 +87,10 @@ Drop the alpha component from the output file, producing a pure RGB file.
 Currently this does not work if the
 .B \-b
 flag is also in effect.
+.TP
+.BI \-M " size"
+Set maximum memory allocation size (in MiB). The default is 256MiB.
+Set to 0 to disable the limit.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR tiff2bw (1),
 .BR TIFFReadRGBAImage (3t),
diff --git a/tools/tiff2rgba.c b/tools/tiff2rgba.c
index fbc383aa..764395f6 100644
--- a/tools/tiff2rgba.c
+++ b/tools/tiff2rgba.c
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ uint32 rowsperstrip = (uint32) -1;
 int process_by_block = 0; /* default is whole image at once */
 int no_alpha = 0;
 int bigtiff_output = 0;
+#define DEFAULT_MAX_MALLOC (256 * 1024 * 1024)
+/* malloc size limit (in bytes)
+ * disabled when set to 0 */
+static tmsize_t maxMalloc = DEFAULT_MAX_MALLOC;
 
 
 static int tiffcvt(TIFF* in, TIFF* out);
@@ -75,8 +79,11 @@ main(int argc, char* argv[])
 	extern char *optarg;
 #endif
 
-	while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, "c:r:t:bn8h")) != -1)
+	while ((c = getopt(argc, argv, "c:r:t:bn8hM:")) != -1)
 		switch (c) {
+			case 'M':
+				maxMalloc = (tmsize_t)strtoul(optarg, NULL, 0) << 20;
+				break;
 			case 'b':
 				process_by_block = 1;
 				break;
@@ -405,6 +412,12 @@ cvt_whole_image( TIFF *in, TIFF *out )
 		  (unsigned long)width, (unsigned long)height);
         return 0;
     }
+    if (maxMalloc != 0 && (tmsize_t)pixel_count * (tmsize_t)sizeof(uint32) > maxMalloc) {
+	TIFFError(TIFFFileName(in),
+		  "Raster size " TIFF_UINT64_FORMAT " over memory limit (" TIFF_UINT64_FORMAT "), try -b option.",
+		  (uint64)pixel_count * sizeof(uint32), (uint64)maxMalloc);
+        return 0;
+    }
 
     rowsperstrip = TIFFDefaultStripSize(out, rowsperstrip);
     TIFFSetField(out, TIFFTAG_ROWSPERSTRIP, rowsperstrip);
@@ -530,6 +543,13 @@ tiffcvt(TIFF* in, TIFF* out)
 	TIFFSetField(out, TIFFTAG_SOFTWARE, TIFFGetVersion());
 	CopyField(TIFFTAG_DOCUMENTNAME, stringv);
 
+	if (maxMalloc != 0 && TIFFStripSize(in) > maxMalloc)
+	{
+		TIFFError(TIFFFileName(in),
+			  "Strip Size " TIFF_UINT64_FORMAT " over memory limit (" TIFF_UINT64_FORMAT ")",
+			  (uint64)TIFFStripSize(in), (uint64)maxMalloc);
+		return 0;
+	}
         if( process_by_block && TIFFIsTiled( in ) )
             return( cvt_by_tile( in, out ) );
         else if( process_by_block )
@@ -539,7 +559,7 @@ tiffcvt(TIFF* in, TIFF* out)
 }
 
 static const char* stuff[] = {
-    "usage: tiff2rgba [-c comp] [-r rows] [-b] [-n] [-8] input... output",
+    "usage: tiff2rgba [-c comp] [-r rows] [-b] [-n] [-8] [-M size] input... output",
     "where comp is one of the following compression algorithms:",
     " jpeg\t\tJPEG encoding",
     " zip\t\tZip/Deflate encoding",
@@ -551,6 +571,7 @@ static const char* stuff[] = {
     " -b (progress by block rather than as a whole image)",
     " -n don't emit alpha component.",
     " -8 write BigTIFF file instead of ClassicTIFF",
+    " -M set the memory allocation limit in MiB. 0 to disable limit",
     NULL
 };