diff --git a/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame.go b/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame.go
index ae103c7e0..53a993317 100644
--- a/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame.go
+++ b/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame.go
@@ -222,7 +222,12 @@ func parseHeaders(decompressor io.Reader, log *zap.SugaredLogger) (http.Header,
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error determining num headers: %v", err)
 	}
-	h := make(http.Header, numHeaders)
+	// numHeaders is attacker controlled, so it must not be used to pre-size the
+	// map: a small frame can declare ~4 billion headers and make Go reserve
+	// gigabytes of bucket storage before a single header is read. The map grows
+	// itself fine, and the io.LimitReader above bounds how many we can actually
+	// read.
+	h := make(http.Header)
 	for range numHeaders {
 		name, err := readLenBytes()
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame_test.go b/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame_test.go
index 252666119..2eed0078e 100644
--- a/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame_test.go
+++ b/k8s-operator/sessionrecording/spdy/frame_test.go
@@ -261,6 +261,31 @@ func Test_spdyFrame_parseHeaders_decompressionBomb(t *testing.T) {
 	if got.Get("x") != strings.Repeat("A", 16) {
 		t.Fatalf("unexpected header value: got %q", got.Get("x"))
 	}
+
+	// A block declaring a huge number of headers must be rejected without
+	// pre-sizing a map for that many entries. The declared count is only 4
+	// bytes, so it slips under the io.LimitReader cap; the fix is to not feed
+	// it to make(). Without that fix this does not fail, it OOMs the binary.
+	countBomb := bytes.NewBuffer(nil)
+	writeControlFramePayloadBeforeHeaders(t, countBomb, SYN_STREAM, 1)
+	cw, err := zlib.NewWriterLevelDict(countBomb, zlib.BestCompression, spdyTxtDictionary)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("error creating zlib writer: %v", err)
+	}
+	if err := binary.Write(cw, binary.BigEndian, uint32(0xFFFFFFFF)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := cw.Flush(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := cw.Close(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	var z3 zlibReader
+	sf3 := &spdyFrame{Ctrl: true, Type: SYN_STREAM, Payload: countBomb.Bytes()}
+	if _, err := sf3.parseHeaders(&z3, zl.Sugar()); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("parseHeaders accepted a block declaring 0xFFFFFFFF headers")
+	}
 }
 
 // Test_spdyFrame_ParseRand calls spdyFrame.Parse with randomly generated bytes