diff --git a/block/vmdk.c b/block/vmdk.c
index 53020ef3e3..955125a7f4 100644
--- a/block/vmdk.c
+++ b/block/vmdk.c
@@ -597,6 +597,14 @@ static int vmdk_open_vmdk4(BlockDriverState *bs,
     }
     l1_size = (le64_to_cpu(header.capacity) + l1_entry_sectors - 1)
                 / l1_entry_sectors;
+    if (l1_size > 512 * 1024 * 1024) {
+        /* although with big capacity and small l1_entry_sectors, we can get a
+         * big l1_size, we don't want unbounded value to allocate the table.
+         * Limit it to 512M, which is 16PB for default cluster and L2 table
+         * size */
+        error_report("L1 size too big");
+        return -EFBIG;
+    }
     if (le32_to_cpu(header.flags) & VMDK4_FLAG_RGD) {
         l1_backup_offset = le64_to_cpu(header.rgd_offset) << 9;
     }
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/059 b/tests/qemu-iotests/059
index 301eacaf7e..b03429dd01 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/059
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/059
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ _supported_fmt vmdk
 _supported_proto generic
 _supported_os Linux
 
+capacity_offset=16
 granularity_offset=20
 grain_table_size_offset=44
 
@@ -58,6 +59,13 @@ _make_test_img 64M
 poke_file "$TEST_IMG" "$grain_table_size_offset" "\xff\xff\xff\xff"
 { $QEMU_IO -c "read 0 512" $TEST_IMG; } 2>&1 | _filter_qemu_io | _filter_testdir
 
+echo "=== Testing too big L1 table size ==="
+echo
+_make_test_img 64M
+poke_file "$TEST_IMG" "$capacity_offset" "\xff\xff\xff\xff"
+poke_file "$TEST_IMG" "$grain_table_size_offset" "\x01\x00\x00\x00"
+{ $QEMU_IO -c "read 0 512" $TEST_IMG; } 2>&1 | _filter_qemu_io | _filter_testdir
+
 # success, all done
 echo "*** done"
 rm -f $seq.full
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/059.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/059.out
index 583955fc7d..9e715e5a95 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/059.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/059.out
@@ -11,4 +11,10 @@ Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=67108864
 L2 table size too big
 qemu-io: can't open device TEST_DIR/t.vmdk
 no file open, try 'help open'
+=== Testing too big L1 table size ===
+
+Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=67108864
+L1 size too big
+qemu-io: can't open device TEST_DIR/t.vmdk
+no file open, try 'help open'
 *** done