diff --git a/drivers/staging/rdma/hfi1/init.c b/drivers/staging/rdma/hfi1/init.c
index 6ddf3c8bcc2e63d973ed8668e386284006fce81c..eec91305516a8d735fcbb8ae7dfc4d2b6e2c4d1a 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/rdma/hfi1/init.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/rdma/hfi1/init.c
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
 #define HFI1_MIN_USER_CTXT_BUFCNT 7
 
 #define HFI1_MIN_HDRQ_EGRBUF_CNT 2
+#define HFI1_MAX_HDRQ_EGRBUF_CNT 16352
 #define HFI1_MIN_EAGER_BUFFER_SIZE (4 * 1024) /* 4KB */
 #define HFI1_MAX_EAGER_BUFFER_SIZE (256 * 1024) /* 256KB */
 
@@ -1355,6 +1356,13 @@ static int init_one(struct pci_dev *pdev, const struct pci_device_id *ent)
 		ret = -EINVAL;
 		goto bail;
 	}
+	if (rcvhdrcnt > HFI1_MAX_HDRQ_EGRBUF_CNT) {
+		hfi1_early_err(&pdev->dev,
+			       "Receive header queue count cannot be greater than %u\n",
+			       HFI1_MAX_HDRQ_EGRBUF_CNT);
+		ret = -EINVAL;
+		goto bail;
+	}
 	/* use the encoding function as a sanitization check */
 	if (!encode_rcv_header_entry_size(hfi1_hdrq_entsize)) {
 		hfi1_early_err(&pdev->dev, "Invalid HdrQ Entry size %u\n",