diff --git a/api.go b/api.go
index 7f000c7..82de183 100644
--- a/api.go
+++ b/api.go
@@ -55,6 +55,13 @@ func (a apiServer) Register(r *mux.Router) {
 }
 
 func (a apiServer) handleCreate(res http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+	if cust.MaxSecretSize > 0 {
+		// As a safeguard against HUGE payloads behind a misconfigured
+		// proxy we take double the maximum secret size after which we
+		// just close the read and cut the connection to the sender.
+		r.Body = http.MaxBytesReader(res, r.Body, cust.MaxSecretSize*2) //nolint:gomnd
+	}
+
 	var (
 		expiry = cfg.SecretExpiry
 		secret string
@@ -69,6 +76,14 @@ func (a apiServer) handleCreate(res http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	if strings.HasPrefix(r.Header.Get("Content-Type"), "application/json") {
 		tmp := apiRequest{}
 		if err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&tmp); err != nil {
+			if _, ok := err.(*http.MaxBytesError); ok {
+				a.collector.CountSecretCreateError(errorReasonSecretSize)
+				// We don't do an error response here as the MaxBytesReader
+				// automatically cuts the ResponseWriter and we simply cannot
+				// answer them.
+				return
+			}
+
 			a.collector.CountSecretCreateError(errorReasonInvalidJSON)
 			a.errorResponse(res, http.StatusBadRequest, err, "decoding request body")
 			return
diff --git a/pkg/customization/customize.go b/pkg/customization/customize.go
index a8b2057..f7b3550 100644
--- a/pkg/customization/customize.go
+++ b/pkg/customization/customize.go
@@ -12,6 +12,13 @@ import (
 	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
 )
 
+// Frontend has a max attachment size of 64MiB as the base64 encoding
+// will break afterwards. Therefore we use a maximum secret size of
+// 65MiB and increase it by double base64 encoding:
+//
+// 65 MiB * 16/9 (twice 4/3 base64 size increase)
+const defaultMaxSecretSize = 65 * 1024 * 1024 * (16 / 9) // = 115.6MiB
+
 type (
 	// Customize holds the structure of the customization file
 	Customize struct {
@@ -78,4 +85,8 @@ func (c *Customize) applyFixes() {
 	if len(c.AppTitle) == 0 {
 		c.AppTitle = "OTS - One Time Secrets"
 	}
+
+	if c.MaxSecretSize == 0 {
+		c.MaxSecretSize = defaultMaxSecretSize
+	}
 }