diff --git a/archive/tar/format.go b/archive/tar/format.go
index 6097798..6f31845 100644
--- a/archive/tar/format.go
+++ b/archive/tar/format.go
@@ -147,6 +147,12 @@ const (
 	// Max length of a special file (PAX header, GNU long name or link).
 	// This matches the limit used by libarchive.
 	maxSpecialFileSize = 1 << 20
+
+	// Maximum number of sparse file entries.
+	// We should never actually hit this limit
+	// (every sparse encoding will first be limited by maxSpecialFileSize),
+	// but this adds an additional layer of defense.
+	maxSparseFileEntries = 1 << 20
 )
 
 // blockPadding computes the number of bytes needed to pad offset up to the
diff --git a/archive/tar/reader.go b/archive/tar/reader.go
index a645c41..ebe8579 100644
--- a/archive/tar/reader.go
+++ b/archive/tar/reader.go
@@ -537,7 +537,8 @@ func (tr *Reader) readOldGNUSparseMap(hdr *Header, blk *block) (sparseDatas, err
 	}
 	s := blk.GNU().Sparse()
 	spd := make(sparseDatas, 0, s.MaxEntries())
-	for {
+	totalSize := len(s)
+	for totalSize < maxSpecialFileSize {
 		for i := 0; i < s.MaxEntries(); i++ {
 			// This termination condition is identical to GNU and BSD tar.
 			if s.Entry(i).Offset()[0] == 0x00 {
@@ -548,7 +549,11 @@ func (tr *Reader) readOldGNUSparseMap(hdr *Header, blk *block) (sparseDatas, err
 			if p.err != nil {
 				return nil, p.err
 			}
-			spd = append(spd, sparseEntry{Offset: offset, Length: length})
+			var err error
+			spd, err = appendSparseEntry(spd, sparseEntry{Offset: offset, Length: length})
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
 		}
 
 		if s.IsExtended()[0] > 0 {
@@ -560,10 +565,12 @@ func (tr *Reader) readOldGNUSparseMap(hdr *Header, blk *block) (sparseDatas, err
 				tr.rawBytes.Write(blk[:])
 			}
 			s = blk.Sparse()
+			totalSize += len(s)
 			continue
 		}
 		return spd, nil // Done
 	}
+	return nil, errSparseTooLong
 }
 
 // readGNUSparseMap1x0 reads the sparse map as stored in GNU's PAX sparse format
@@ -636,7 +643,10 @@ func readGNUSparseMap1x0(r io.Reader) (sparseDatas, error) {
 		if err1 != nil || err2 != nil {
 			return nil, ErrHeader
 		}
-		spd = append(spd, sparseEntry{Offset: offset, Length: length})
+		spd, err = appendSparseEntry(spd, sparseEntry{Offset: offset, Length: length})
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
 	}
 	return spd, nil
 }
@@ -670,12 +680,22 @@ func readGNUSparseMap0x1(paxHdrs map[string]string) (sparseDatas, error) {
 		if err1 != nil || err2 != nil {
 			return nil, ErrHeader
 		}
-		spd = append(spd, sparseEntry{Offset: offset, Length: length})
+		spd, err = appendSparseEntry(spd, sparseEntry{Offset: offset, Length: length})
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
 		sparseMap = sparseMap[2:]
 	}
 	return spd, nil
 }
 
+func appendSparseEntry(spd sparseDatas, ent sparseEntry) (sparseDatas, error) {
+	if len(spd) >= maxSparseFileEntries {
+		return nil, errSparseTooLong
+	}
+	return append(spd, ent), nil
+}
+
 // Read reads from the current file in the tar archive.
 // It returns (0, io.EOF) when it reaches the end of that file,
 // until Next is called to advance to the next file.
diff --git a/archive/tar/reader_test.go b/archive/tar/reader_test.go
index 2116dac..c8aefbe 100644
--- a/archive/tar/reader_test.go
+++ b/archive/tar/reader_test.go
@@ -1133,6 +1133,17 @@ func TestReadOldGNUSparseMap(t *testing.T) {
 		input: makeInput(FormatGNU, "",
 			makeSparseStrings(sparseDatas{{10 << 30, 512}, {20 << 30, 512}})...),
 		wantMap: sparseDatas{{10 << 30, 512}, {20 << 30, 512}},
+	}, {
+		input: makeInput(FormatGNU, "",
+			makeSparseStrings(func() sparseDatas {
+				var datas sparseDatas
+				// This is more than enough entries to exceed our limit.
+				for i := range int64(1 << 20) {
+					datas = append(datas, sparseEntry{i * 2, (i * 2) + 1})
+				}
+				return datas
+			}())...),
+		wantErr: errSparseTooLong,
 	}}
 
 	for i, v := range vectors {
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 8b1cedd..1b5292c 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 module github.com/vbatts/tar-split
 
-go 1.17
+go 1.22.0
 
 require (
 	github.com/fatih/color v1.15.0
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 7efc2dc..482b79d 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ github.com/urfave/cli v1.22.16 h1:MH0k6uJxdwdeWQTwhSO42Pwr4YLrNLwBtg1MRgTqPdQ=
 github.com/urfave/cli v1.22.16/go.mod h1:EeJR6BKodywf4zciqrdw6hpCPk68JO9z5LazXZMn5Po=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20220715151400-c0bba94af5f8/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20220811171246-fbc7d0a398ab/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
-golang.org/x/sys v0.6.0/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.26.0 h1:KHjCJyddX0LoSTb3J+vWpupP9p0oznkqVk/IfjymZbo=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.26.0/go.mod h1:/VUhepiaJMQUp4+oa/7Zr1D23ma6VTLIYjOOTFZPUcA=
 gopkg.in/check.v1 v0.0.0-20161208181325-20d25e280405 h1:yhCVgyC4o1eVCa2tZl7eS0r+SDo693bJlVdllGtEeKM=