diff --git a/ui/vnc-ws.c b/ui/vnc-ws.c
index e5c1911119..1ea8554d28 100644
--- a/ui/vnc-ws.c
+++ b/ui/vnc-ws.c
@@ -89,8 +89,11 @@ void vncws_handshake_read(void *opaque)
     VncState *vs = opaque;
     uint8_t *handshake_end;
     long ret;
-    buffer_reserve(&vs->ws_input, 4096);
-    ret = vnc_client_read_buf(vs, buffer_end(&vs->ws_input), 4096);
+    /* Typical HTTP headers from novnc are 512 bytes, so limiting
+     * total header size to 4096 is easily enough. */
+    size_t want = 4096 - vs->ws_input.offset;
+    buffer_reserve(&vs->ws_input, want);
+    ret = vnc_client_read_buf(vs, buffer_end(&vs->ws_input), want);
 
     if (!ret) {
         if (vs->csock == -1) {
@@ -107,6 +110,9 @@ void vncws_handshake_read(void *opaque)
         vncws_process_handshake(vs, vs->ws_input.buffer, vs->ws_input.offset);
         buffer_advance(&vs->ws_input, handshake_end - vs->ws_input.buffer +
                 strlen(WS_HANDSHAKE_END));
+    } else if (vs->ws_input.offset >= 4096) {
+        VNC_DEBUG("End of headers not found in first 4096 bytes\n");
+        vnc_client_error(vs);
     }
 }